Caribbean & Central America - March 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has created a special military unit to be based in the business capital of Honduras, San Pedro Sula. Its remit will be to provide round-the-clock support for the police anywhere in the country. The special unit will be trained and run by the army. At the same time, former Guatemalan army recruits are enrolling in the new Fuerzas Especiales de Seguridad Ciudadana, a special military unit that will assist the Policí­a Nacional Civil (PNC) in its fights against organised crime.

Zelaya said the new force will be able to take entire regions in a few hours. "It will do so with great force with great determination, impose order and quash all those who intend to commit crimes," he said. Zelaya did not reveal the size of the unit but shortly after his investiture he let it be known that he intended to recruit 4,000 more army conscripts (RC-06-02); something which prompted the Nicaraguan government in March to seek clarification of Honduras's intentions. The new unit is the tough side of Zelaya's plan to deal with the threat of the mara gangs. Zelaya is yet to reveal details of the soft side of his plan - the social rehabilitation he promised during his election campaign - although Catholic Bishop Romulo Emiliani is on standby to mediate in talks between the government and the maras.

The Guatemalan government aims to have its own elite unit's 3,000 new army recruits trained by mid-April. The recruits will make up six 500-strong units, each of which will include 50 members of the PNC and operate in six target areas - Guatemala City, Huehuetenango, Jutiapa, Petén, Suchitepéquez and Zacapa - with the highest rates of violent crime.