December 17, 2018
Updated December 2018
Gender-based violence (GBV) forces many women, girls, and LGBTI persons to flee El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Family members, gangs, and drug traffickers most frequently perpetrate GBV, but violence by police and other authorities is also widespread. Despite pervasive GBV in the three countries, staggering impunity levels persist, with an average of less than 10 percent of cases resulting in conviction. Many individuals and families fleeing GBV are potentially eligible for protection under U.S. as well as Mexican refugee law, as the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras fail to protect their citizens from GBV.
Learn more about the pervasiveness of this issue within the region with our GBV Fact Sheet.
