Honduran Children Prostituted
Over 10,000 Honduran children are prostituted daily in bars, stores and night clubs, director of Casa Alianza Jose Manuel Capellin revealed Monday.

Research carried out in Honduras by this organization in defense of children"s rights in Latin America found that there are children working in brothels in Choluteca, Puerto Cortes, Ocotepeque and Trujillo, in the Caribbean department of Colon.

The activist said that at least 400 male minors are used by men to satisfy their sexual drives.

Most of them are under 18 and provide their sexual services in brothels, bars, massage parlors, as well as in the major hotels and avenues, he said.

"When there are children in this situation it is because there are adults demanding such services, which is a huge and ever-increasing problem," said Capellin.

He did note that in addition to the Attorney General"s Office, other organizations, and law enforcement agents, including police, are being trained to deal with this problem in a proper way.

Capellin regretted that the government is tackling the symptoms rather than the main cause, poverty, which affects 80 percent of the population, which lacks economic development, education and family.

In Honduras, 60 percent of families rely only on the mother. The fathers do not exist because they are irresponsible men who abandoned the pregnant women, he said.

"Research carried out by Casa Alianza and other non-government organizations revealed that child prostitution has its origin in broken families in which girls are exploited, in many cases sexually abused, from an early age," he stressed.