Men and boys dumped in Honduran hellholes
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.
The exercise yard, if it could be called that, was crowded with men sitting and standing around, with no room for physical activity. In this prison, there were no facilities for sport, no attempt at rehabilitation or training, no education, no reading materials. The only recreational activity was card-playing.
Two unsanitary toilets were shared by all the prisoners who went to great lengths to keep the prison as clean as possible under very difficult circumstances. Many of the men had been held without trial for years. One man was there for 17 years and was still awaiting trial.
If any reader would like to help these forgotten people of Honduras, they should contact human rights officer Carlos Alberto Flores at Barrio La Colonia, La Esperanza-Intibucá, Honduras.
Sunny Kilcullen,
Hansberry House,
Shantalla Road,
Galway
