TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – The Honduran government announced curfews on Sunday in two northern cities after 22 people were shot dead overnight in separate attacks amid escalating violence in the country.
Heavily armed men opened fire on Saturday night in a billiards hall in a neighborhood in the northern manufacturing city of Choloma, killing 11 people and seriously wounding three more, police press office official Edgardo Barahona told Reuters.
An official source not authorized to speak to the media told Reuters there had been at least 11 other killings on Saturday in separate episodes across the northern Valle de Sula zone, including in the key industrial city of San Pedro Sulay.
President Xiomara Castro announced via Twitter a 15-day curfew in Choloma between 9 pm and 4 am, effective immediately, and another in San Pedro Sula, effective July 4.
“Multiple operations, raids, captures and checkpoints are initiated,” Castro said.
The government is also offering a cash reward of 800,000 Lempiras ($32,707) to people who help identify and capture those responsible for the killings in Choloma, the president said.
There has been a partial state of emergency in parts of Honduras since December in a bid to confront violent gangs.
The attacks over the weekend follow a deadly incident earlier this week at a women’s prison near the capital Tegucigalpa that killed 46 people amid a reported break-in by gang members.
(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Mark Porter)
