Friday, July 18, 2014

Poverty, violence fuel exodus of youths from Honduras to U.S.

By Alfredo Corchado, Dallas News
July 12, 2014

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Twelve-year-old Maynor Serrano points to the rows of houses where his friends and neighbors used to live. All are gone — many fleeing to the U.S.

Two of his friends were killed as 10-year-olds, their bodies chopped to pieces in a suspected gang vendetta.
He saw homes reduced to crumbling wrecks, their walls pockmarked with bullet holes. Entire neighborhoods were abandoned in hours — the result of monstrous gang violence.

Some houses became casas locas, crazy homes, for torturing families in this macabre city, which has the highest homicide rate in the world. Daily newspapers are filled with graphic photographs of bodies.

Like many, Maynor Serrano yearns to escape to the U.S., where he has relatives.

“It’s tough to live without hope,” he said. “If it’s not there, you go look for it.” [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20140712-poverty-violence-fuel-exodus-of-youths-from-honduras-to-u.s..ece

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