Latin America’s drug superhighway

It’s one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and a hotbed for the international drug trade. With eight percent of the drugs that come into the United States passing through its borders, the mark left on Honduras is dark, and plagued with destruction.

Here, the problem of drugs is so inescapable that nobody seems immune and traffickers control a trade so powerful that unsuspecting citizens are often faced with choosing between a bullet, a bribe, or a last resort: making the treacherous journey north, in mass migrations into the United States.

The Landing Strip goes deep into dangerous territory to expose the intricacies of a drug trade so pervasive that even the president’s son has been found to be directly involved.

Through vast, unpopulated areas, and up and down desolate coastlines, it shows how a war on drugs fought on what appears to be no-man’s land seems nearly impossible to win.

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Its proximity to two oceans and three national borders makes Honduras an ideal port for drug rafficking. Up to 300 tons of cocaine pass through the small nation every year.

Vast, desolate territories make for ideal drug transport routes, and also for migrants. From 2016 to 2017, requests for asylum from Hondurans increased by 25 percent.

Police patrols are performed routinely in Honduras, but government corruption and lack of opportunity often mean drug trafficking is the only option for many young Hondurans.

Pristine coastlines in the northwest Garifuna territory have become ground zero for the drug war, with the army, militias and drug cartels all fighting for control. Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

In San Pedro Sula, a taxi driver shares his plight. They are often extorted by gangs, and if they don’t pay fines, they can be killed. If they turn in gang members to police, they put their families at risk of the same.

Military police patrol Chamelecon, the site of one of Honduras’ most intense operations, in which 100 “crazy houses” – drug and torture dens – were taken under government control. Human rights groups say using the military as patrol creates a “shoot first” scenario that promotes increased violence.

Honduran media, often targeted by cartels, cover the discovery of a body that’s been found tied up and tossed in an empty field in what they suspect is a drug-related assassination.

In Trujillo, U.S. soldiers train Honduran forces in what many argue is another failed step of the U.S. war on drugs that began during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and still has not been won.

BIG STORY | Landing Strip — A clandestine landing strip in northwest Honduras is the perfect hideaway for large drug deliveries. Honduran forces often bomb these runways, but cartels are known to quickly fix them, so they only remain inoperable for short periods of time.

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Honduras is one of the most violent countries in Latin America. With most of its violence stemming from drug-trafficking, the country – along with El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize – reports among the world’s highest incidences of homicide.