Honduras deploys hundreds of military agents to fight crime

FILE PHOTO: Members of Honduras' DIPAMPCO (Police Anti Maras and Gangs Against Organised Crime Directorate) frisk people while doing rounds in a low-income neighbourhood, after President Xiomara Castro declared a national security emergency implementing a new plan to combat a rising number of cases of extortion by violent criminal groups operating across the country, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras November 26, 2022. REUTERS/Fredy Rodriguez/File Photo

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' government deployed soldiers across the country as part of a plan to fight criminal groups, authorities said Monday, with official images showing hundreds of soldiers being commissioned for the project.

The move comes after leftist President Xiomara Castro implemented a partial state of emergency last December in pockets of the country's largest cities, led mainly by members of the police.