The Republic of Honduras is a country in Central America, and it’s bothered to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Gulf Fonseca. The country has a population of approximately 10 million and classified by the world bank as lower middle-income country with levels of income inequality higher than in any other Latin American country.

Honduras is no exception to poverty, corruption and gang violence which have dominated the country for decades. Honduras as part of the Northern Triangle has been described as the world’s epicentre for gender-based violence making it one of the deadliest places for women on earth.

Data available indicates that 6.2 out of 100,000 women were murdered as a result of femicide in 2019—the most noteworthy figure in Latin America and the Caribbean. Statistics gathered in 2021 captures a femicide in Honduras every thirty-six hours; at the start of February, four women were violently murdered in a period of forty-eight hours.

Women here are persecuted not only by their intimate partners or non-partner and gang members but also many are compelled into compromising and dangerous situations for survival, and there is little to no work available, especially for women.

The ‘shadow pandemic’ reached a crescendo in 2014 when 19-year-old Maria Jose Alvarado, the crowned Miss Honduras was murdered after attending her sister’s boyfriend’s party. Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister, 23-year-old Sofia Trinidad were shot numerous times by Sofia’s boyfriend, 32-year-old Plutarco Ruiz, who was also known as the most powerful man in Santa Barbara. Plutarco shot Sofia out of a fit of jealousy, and as Maria tried to flee the scene, he shot her 12 times in the back. Both sister’s bodies were later found in Cablotales village, near the River Aguagua.