00:00Now, Honduras recently restructured its security framework to address ongoing GEM violence
00:06and organize crime by dissolving the anti-Maras and GEM's police direction
00:11and creating the anti-extortion and terrorist association direction.
00:15Gerardo Torres Alaya from Tegucigalpa has the complete report.
00:19Honduras is experiencing a security crisis with 17 massacres recorded so far this year,
00:25with May 1st being the most violent day in the last decade.
00:29Registring 31 violent murders nationwide.
00:32To address the harsh criticism, security authorities have announced a major restructuring of the institution.
00:40We are working on institutional restructuring as you have been seeing.
00:45Part of that process involves the certification of agents who were part of the defunct PAMCO.
00:51We hope that many of them can be integrated into different services,
00:55both in the new Special Division Against Extortion and Terrorist Associations and also in the other police entities.
01:07The anti-extortion and terrorist association direction has replaced the anti-Maras and gang police direction,
01:14anti-PAMCO, and for some it is just a demagogic exercise.
01:18But according to the statements of the police chief, it seems that behind it,
01:22there's a strategy to expel loyal police officers from the old administration.
01:28The entire national police force is undergoing certification,
01:32and any identified areas of corruption will be addressed immediately.
01:36Zero tolerance.
01:38The national police currently has its own internal control systems in place.
01:44Beyond the restructuring, security authorities promise quick response to the security crisis that continues to escalate in the country.
01:55We have been working on a plan based on identifying the areas with the highest rates of violence.
02:01As you know, our country has 298 municipalities and criminal violence is concentrated in 10 percent of them,
02:10or approximately 30 municipalities.
02:16The security problem has quickly become the biggest pressure of the current government,
02:21overshadowing structural issues like the economy and health care.
02:24In just a few weeks, the progress made by the previous administration has been undone.
02:29And the population is demanding immediate answers.
02:32Gerardo Torres Zelaya reporting from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for Telesur in English.
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