Peace Corps Pulls Out of Bloody Honduras

Life in Honduras is no walk in the park: The country sees some 20 homicides daily, giving it the unfortunate title of Central America's most dangerous country. And so the Peace Corps has decided to pull out. Though it says the 158 volunteers it has in the country are safe, they will all return home next month. The Peace Corps, which has had a presence in the country since 1963, will then "conduct a full review of the program," says its director.

Though it didn't provide details on any specific threats it may have identified, the BBC reports that drug trafficking and organized crime, and the violence that surrounds them, are on the rise—there, and throughout Central America. And that's causing the Peace Corps to exercise caution elsewhere in the region. Though the 335 volunteers currently placed in El Salvador and Guatemala will remain there, it will not dispatch new volunteers to those countries. The 76 who were supposed to start their training there in January will be reassigned to other countries, reports the New York Times. Click to read one volunteer's reaction to the news. (More Peace Corps stories.)