Filipino murdered on Honduras tourist island

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) - A Filipino crew member of a cruise ship was shot to death during a port call in Honduras' Caribbean resort island of Roatan, the government said Monday.

The victim of Sunday's shooting was identified as Gavan Yaycob, 27, the Honduran Tourism Institute said.

The institute said Yaycob was a crew member of a cruise ship that had tied up earlier Sunday. It did not identify the ship or detail the circumstances surrounding the murder.

"This action weakens whatever effort the government could make to promote tourism and to grow the industry in this country," the institute's director Emilio Silvestre said.

About two million tourists visited Honduras' Caribbean islands last year, about half of them going to Roatan.

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, but the islands have been largely insulated from the drug and gang violence wracking the mainland.

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