Honduras murders: Where life is cheap and funerals are free

Honduras has the world's highest murder rate. Many victims are poor. And one politician campaigning for election made an unusual vote-winning promise - free funerals for anyone unable to give a loved-one a dignified burial. Early one Saturday morning the phone rings at the People's Funeral Service on a noisy main street in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. On the phone is one of the workers from the city's mortuary. A family needs help. Another young man was gunned down in the street the previous day, and his relatives do not have the cash to give him a decent funeral. At the back of the building there is a stack of new coffins, some beige, some grey. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote I found that people were being buried in plastic garbage bags” Ricardo Alvarez Mayor of Tegucigalpa Within hours, a black pick-up truck with Funeraria del Pueblo painted in orange on its sides is on its way to the mortuary, with an empty coffin on board. The vehicle is also carrying a stand for the coffin, curtains and candles, and coffee and bread for mourners at the wake. This will be held in the family's local church, before 26-year-old Ramon Orlando Varela is buried in a plot also provided by the People's Funeral Service. It is a comprehensive service offered free of charge to the poor of the city by the office of the mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez. "When I was campaigning to be mayor, nearly seven years ago, I found that people were being buried in plastic garbage bags," he remembers. "I said, 'That cannot happen in my country, in my city.' So I've been running the funeral service for the last six years, and this is my seventh year." Tragically, this is a service that is needed now more than ever in Honduras. Ramon Orlando Varela had just dropped his children off at school when he was shot The National Commission for Human Rights has calculated that there is a violent death every 74 minutes in this small nation of about eight million people. Last year Honduras recorded the highest murder rate in the world, with 86 people killed for every 100,000 inhabitants, up from 82 in 2010. In the UK the rate is just over one, in Mexico, 18. The majority of those who die a violent death in Honduras - like Ramon - are killed with a gun. But the reasons for the explosion of killings - almost a doubling of the murder rate since 2005 - are complex.