The National Court has rejected the asylum request and the subsidiary protection requested by a Honduran citizen who claimed to have suffered extortion and death threats on behalf of Mara 13. The ruling thus confirms the previous resolution issued by the Ministry of the Interior in August 2023.
The case dates back to the arrival in Spain of a Honduran citizen in October 2021, who months later, on February 18, 2022, formalized his request for international protection at police stations in Gijón. The applicant claimed to have been extortion victim and threats by Mara 13 in Tegucigalpa, where he ran a small business selling and repairing mobile phones.
According to his story, the members of this criminal organization demanded periodic payments from him and threatened to murder him and his family, in addition to burning down his establishment, something that finally happened. during the COVID-19 pandemicin a context of economic crisis and health restrictions.
He was pointed at with a firearm
After the destruction of his business, the affected person maintained that he tried to resume his activity, but the threats and pressure from the gangs persisted, even leading to him being pointed at a firearm and forced to deliver merchandise. Added to this situation was a serious deterioration in his health, since he contracted COVID-19 and, due to his chronic asthmaremained hospitalized for two months in precarious conditions and without adequate access to medication. The concatenation of these factors, violence, illness and economic precariousness, further aggravated by the effects of hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020, led him to leave the country.
In his first attempt, he tried to reach the United States, although he was deported from Mexico. Finally, with the financial help of relatives residing in Spain, he managed to travel to Spanish territory, where decided to apply for asylum alleging fear for his life and the impossibility of finding effective protection in Honduras.
However, in August 2023, the Undersecretary of the Interior decided to deny both the right of asylum and subsidiary protection, considering that the events described responded to common crime situations without fitting into the assumptions provided for by international regulations.
There was no persecution within the terms of the asylum
For this reason, the affected person judicially requested that this decision be revoked with a lawsuit to obtain his refugee status. To support his request, he argued that he needed it “for the unsustainable situation of harassment, threats and physical violence that you have suffered in your country,” including kidnapping, torture and extortion by the gangs.
In response, the State Attorney’s Office demanded full confirmation of the contested resolution. In the brief they defended that the situation experienced by the applicant falls within the scope of common crime and that “The actions carried out by members of gang groups represent actions of a criminal nature coming from an organized gang that would have carried out acts aimed at to obtain an economic benefitAccording to the State, these events, even though they are serious, cannot be considered persecution for reasons protected in asylum legislation.
With these two arguments, the National Court has ended up concluding that, although the facts are credible reported by the affected person, his situation does not fit into the causes that allow the recognition of refugee status.
The sentence focuses on the legal analysis: the persecution that enables the right of asylum It must be based on race, religion, nationality, social group, political opinions, gender or sexual orientation. In this case, the judges understand that “the extortion and threats They lack any connection with these motives” and respond to economic interests associated with organized crime.
