Vehicles pass over the bridge at Chamelecón, San Pedro Sula. Chamelecón is controlled by gangs and violence here is frequent and extreme.
ACT ALLIANCE/SEAN HAWKEY
‘I have nightmares about him. They killed him for helping us.’
traveling by bus would be safer than the freight train. But members of the Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel, stopped the first bus they boarded. “Tey asked every passenger for
the name of their ‘coyote’ (some- one paid to guide people across the border) and the password,” Rita said.
“If your coyote was on their list and had given you the password, they let you stay on the bus. If not, you were in trouble. Tey shot and killed a teenage girl sitting near me who didn’t have a coyote.” A second group of Zetas tried to kidnap Rita and her
aunt near Mexico City. “One of them helped us escape,” she said. “He said I reminded him of his own daughter. As we ran away, shots were fired. I looked back and saw that the other Zetas had killed him. I have nightmares about him. Tey killed him for helping us.” Rita is back in her hometown and receiving pastoral
care from a congregation of the Christian Lutheran Church of Honduras. In addition to the emotional scars from her odyssey, she returned to the same situation that forced her to flee in the first place. “Before I leſt, I made the mistake of joining a gang
for a few months. But I saw how violent they were. Aſter they killed a good friend, I pulled out of the gang. Tey started threatening me as well. Tey want me back and will pay me 10 times as much as any other job in town.
Sun shines through the doors of a police station in San Pedro Sula. The police and army struggle to prevent gang warfare, extortion rackets, drug and human trafficking, murders and other violence.
But I’m not going to do drugs. I’m not going to kill people. I’m not going to be their prostitute.” More than anything else, she would like to help her
mother who is raising five other children alone. Rita, who never finished the seventh grade, would also like to go back to school. Roger Vivas knows Rita’s story. Since 2008 he has
served as the church’s national youth coordinator and works with more than 200 youth in nine communities throughout Honduras. “Emigration is one of our greatest difficulties,” Vivas
said. “We keep losing our youth. I was a member of my congregation’s first youth group. Te other members of that group have emigrated. I’m the only one leſt. “What Lutheran youth face is part of a national
problem. Youth want to help their families—to improve their living conditions. But jobs are increasingly scarce even if you have a high school degree. What jobs there are pay only a few dollars per day.” Prospects for children in Honduras remain grim.
Honduras is not only the most violent country in Central America but also the poorest, with 70 percent of its population living in poverty and 48 percent in extreme poverty. With no quick solutions, the exodus will continue. Tat’s made clear by the story of
Roberto (name changed for his safety), a youth leader in the Lutheran church before he emigrated in October 2013. He was repatriated in January 2014. “During the trip through Mexico, I talked to other
‘Like me, they emigrated out of economic desperation.’
Hondurans riding on top of the freight train,” he said. “Most were from rural towns and villages. None of them had ever had formal employment. Like me, they emigrated out of economic desperation. “With a good job, I
wouldn’t have emi- grated the first time. I still don’t have one, so I may have no choice but to try again.”
Author bio: Deal is a missionary serving as regional representative for ELCA Global Mission in Central America.
March 2015 37
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