1. Central America Engagement - Honduras Component
December 2012
Background: In recent years, Central America has become the most violent region in the world outside
of war zones. Honduras leads this deadly trend with the world’s highest murder rate of 86 per 100,000 in
2011. Spiraling criminal violence and high levels of impunity have become so pervasive that citizens
increasingly feel powerless to alter the perceived grip of gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and
corrupt officials. This corrosive combination of spreading violence and an increasingly resigned public
threaten the security and prosperity of Honduras and the region while exacerbating trends of illegal
immigration, trafficking, and gang activities that reach into the U.S. CSO’s engagement provides a
short-term strategy, nested within the longer-term goals of the Central America Regional Security
Initiative (CARSI) and the Bilateral Human Rights Working Group, seeking to create momentum to
enable Hondurans to address growing violence and crime.
Desired Impacts: CSO seeks to achieve two primary impacts, in support of broader U.S. goals:
1. Visibly reduced violence, characterized by reductions in homicide rates and other signs of
intimidation in urban centers.
2. A narrative transformed from despair to hope, empowering citizens to help improve security and
mobilizing support for effective and legitimate law enforcement institutions.
Theory of Change: CSO efforts address security issues and perceptions at both national and community
levels to help transform the prevailing national narrative from one of fear, resignation, and
powerlessness to one of empowerment, responsibility, and opportunity. CSO bolsters efforts that
concretely demonstrate how the Hondurans are reducing impunity and violence. The amplification of
community-level successes promotes a sense of hope, empowerment, and greater citizen participation in
security efforts. Effective communication of these efforts increases awareness of what is being done
about violent crime and demonstrates how individuals and law enforcement authorities together can
break cycles of violence.
In order to achieve these ends, CSO is engaging along four lines of effort:
1. Increase the Effectiveness of Public Security Reform Efforts. CSO supporting the most
promising opportunities for security reform at the strategic level, in order to strengthen host-country
efforts to demonstrate improvements in the Honduran government’s transparency, accountability, and
responsiveness while providing substantive steps toward reducing impunity. This will be done through:
 Support to the Public Security Reform Commission (Comisión de Reforma de la Seguridad
Publica), which seeks to reform key laws and justice institutions. Legislative proposals must
be complete by January 2013 in order for the current legislative session to act. Timing is
critical since two legislative sessions must agree to enact a new law.
 Support to the Alliance for Peace and Justice (Alianza por la Paz y Justicia) to build
necessary public support and political will for the Public Security Reform Commission.
 Support the Trust for the Security Tax (Fideicomiso del Tazón) by providing Senior Security
and Prevention Advisors.
2. Expand Honduran Judicial and Investigative Capacity. CSO is providing technical advisors in
the short-term to two Honduran Task Forces – the Special Victims Task Force and the Financial
Crimes Task Force. CSO’s advisors are amplifying longer-term support provided by the Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Current activities include:
 Mentoring local investigators/prosecutors and assisting with high-profile cases.

2. 3. Transform the National Narrative to Hope and Empowerment to shift the perceptions from
despair and powerlessness as more citizens receive credible messages of progress and positive
change. Activities include:
 Training government officials and providing support to government communications
campaigns to improve the government’s ability to communicate credibly and effectively.
 Enhancing the ability of the Alianza, an alliance of dozens of leading NGOs, to mobilize
popular support for reform and new responses to violent crime.
 Building capacity of Honduran journalists to help spread accurate, credible information.
4. Show that Locally-Driven Efforts to Reduce Violent Crime Can Succeed. CSO’s work amplifies
U.S. and local efforts in priority communities where there is a high likelihood of success for
catalyzing significant near-term increases in security.
 In San Miguel, CSO supports efforts to build a network of community residents willing to
collaborate with local law enforcement, which will lead to a greater number of crimes being
reported and investigated. This project complements the Bureau of International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs’ model police precinct program in San Miguel.
 In Cofradia, planned activities include building the capacity of local police, the Committee in
Support of the Police, and local strategic communications capabilities to increase citizen
willingness to cooperate with law enforcement.
CSO-Funded Personnel in Honduras
 1 Field Team Lead
 1 Strategic Communications Specialist
 1 Homicide Investigator
 1 Financial Crimes Prosecutor
 1 Violent Crimes Prosecutor
 2 Senior Advisors to the Fideicomiso (Security Tax Commission)
 3 International experts assessing the Public Ministry
 2 Strategic Communications Advisors to the Government of Honduras
 2 additional investigators have been requested to start January 2013