Men and boys dumped in Honduran hellholes

IN AUGUST 2002, when travelling through Honduras, I stayed in a town called La Esperanza.

While there, I learned about the breaches of human rights in the area. I was told of shocking injustices, for example, in local cement factories where the oldest employee was 14, working in horrific conditions and for derisory wages.

I visited a prison in the centre of town where the conditions left me speechless. One hundred and sixty men and five women were crammed in three cells. Each cell measured 25ft by 15ft. The ‘lucky’ ones slept in coffin-like ‘beds’ stacked in tiers of three or four, while the remainder slept on available floor space.