TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Honduran government mobilized thousands of police officers on Tuesday to areas controlled by criminal groups, marking the beginning of a partial state of emergency across parts of two of the country's largest cities.
The decision is part of leftist President Xiomara Castro's crackdown on gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. Some cities have been struggling in recent months with a so-called "war tax," in which gangs extort individuals or businesses.
Gangs have torched buses and killed drivers who did not pay up.
The measure, announced last week, suspends some constitutional rights in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula and is set to last until Jan. 6, according to the country's police chief Gustavo Sanchez.
The national police are deploying 1,000 officers in each city, Sanchez said in a press conference Tuesday.
Sanchez claimed the partial suspension of constitutional rights would not affect the vast majority of Hondurans, only those that authorities "determine and consider responsible" for links to crime.
The measure gives authorities the ability to arrest those deemed suspicious, along with "previously identified criminal individuals or groups," without needing a warrant.
Human rights defender and Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno slammed the move on Twitter, saying "emergency measures give more power to those who act outside the law, and put the defenseless population at risk."
The president of Honduras' Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (Codeh) said the group would be monitoring the measure's roll-out.
Extortions generate annual profits of up to $737 million for the gangs, nearly 3% of the country's gross domestic product, according to data from Association for a More Just Society, a security-focused non-governmental organization.
The move from Honduras follows a similar decision from neighbor El Salvador in March, in which right-wing President Nayib Bukele's government suspended some rights following a spike in murders.
(Reporting by Orfa Mejia; Additional reporting by Gerardo Arbiaza in San Salvador; Writing by Valentine Hilaire and Kylie Madry; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
