Violence in Honduras

Veteran nurse Suyapa Bonilla directs infrared light onto the tattooed forearm of Osman Torres in her clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Rising gang violence has led her to limit the number of patients she sees. (Tracy Wilkinson / Los Angeles Times)

Dec. 16, 2013 2:13 PM PT

The homicide rate in Honduras has been stoked by gang rivalries, economic turmoil, drug trafficking, political killings and vigilante slayings. On average, 20 people a day are killed in the country, which has a population smaller than that of Los Angeles County.

A masked member of the 18th Street gang peers out a window of a cell inside the San Pedro Sula prison in Honduras. (Esteban Felix / Associated Press)

Forensic technicians in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, remove the body of a cab driver shot to death after he refused to pay a gang “war tax.” (Orlando Sierra / AFP/Getty Images)