Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

An Army soldier stands guard on a bus in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28, 2012. Honduras has the world's highest murder rate, at 92 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Associated Press reports — Honduras' government is assigning soldiers to ride buses in urban areas as a way to free police officers for foot patrols in neighborhoods afflicted by crime and insecurity.

President Porfirio Lobo says there will be at least two soldiers on each bus on 20 routes in the capital and in the city of San Pedro Sula. He says the move is "in response to outcry from various sectors of society."

Officials say the deployment will eventually extend throughout Honduras.

On Tuesday, the government extended a nearly year-old national state of emergency for six months, allowing troop deployments in civilian areas.

The new operation is the second time Honduran soldiers have been placed on public buses, which are frequently targeted by gang members who rob and extort passengers and drivers.

Reuters

A soldier boards a public bus in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28.

EPA

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, lower right, attends a ceremony for military members to be deployed on public transport buses in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28.

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A girl cries as her home and neighboring shanty town is forcefully dismantled after the Honduras government claimed the settlement illegal in Tegucigalpa on July 20, 2012.

By Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Land disputes are becoming increasingly frequent in Honduras. This trend alarms the nation's business class and sows fear of increased political violence. In a nation where 72 percent of the poorest landowners hold only 11.6 percent of cultivated land, tensions are rising as the poor have few places to go and little opportunities for productive employment.

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A man dismantles his shack during an eviction on July 20.

A woman dismantles her shack as military personnel move through during an eviction on July 20.

A woman is carried after fainting as her home and neighborhood are forcefully dismantled in a shanty town eviction on July 20.

Residents dismantle their shack during an eviction on July 20.

Honduran army personnel watch as residents dismantle their shacks during an eviction on July 20.

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Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

A woman helplessly watches as her home is demolished in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Oct. 27.

Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

A woman cries in front of a police officer as her shack is dismantled in Tegucigalpa on Oct. 27.

Agence France Presse reports: 

Human rights organizations described as inhumane the eviction of 120 families and the destruction by court order of 52 houses on El Estiquin hill, on the southern outskirts of the Honduran capital. The evicted people, mostly low-income single mothers, demanded that President Porfirio Lobo provide them with a decent place to live.