<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The bullet-riddled bodies of three women from an Afro-Caribbean minority group were found slain on a beach, the National Human Rights Commission of Honduras said on Sunday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The women were all members of the Garifuna community, whose members live along coastal Honduras and Belize and are descended from an Afro-Indigenous population that migrated from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent more than two centuries ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The three Garifuna women were found shot to death on a beach in the village of Travesia in Puerto Cortes," Commission Director Blanca Izaguirre said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A commission statement said the women were sitting on the beach "when heavily armed men arrived and shot them without saying anything."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The three new slayings bring to 17 the number of women murdered in Honduras so far in 2023, the commission said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the commission's tally, between 2002 and 2022, more than 7,500 women in Honduras lost their lives "in violent circumstances."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Honduras has the highest homicide rate in Central America. Last year, the country tallied 35.8 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to official figures. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>