Honduras

We have provided safe travel and other services for a number of philanthropic organizations over the years.

In terms of objectives, these projects are quite similar to any other EP program we deliver: Our goal is to keep the principals and others in their entourages safe, happy and productive wherever their travels take them.

In terms of style, however, corporate and NGO clients can be different. Travels with philanthropic organizations often take us far off the beaten track in developing countries into areas where few tourists or foreign business execs ever venture. And even though our primary objective is to keep our principals safe, most of them are not happy if security means setting up militaristic barriers between them and the people they are trying to help.

 

The challenge: One of our US-based philanthropic clients wanted to take a group of stakeholders to Honduras.

On the itinerary was San Pedro Sula, known for a high rate of violent crime, as well as hundreds of miles of travel through remote rural areas.

In order for their travel guests to experience the people of Honduras first hand, our client insisted that the communities they visited found them approachable while we kept them safe.

For this particular trip, the group would be spending most of its time in remote regions of Honduras, in rural areas with few paved roads – and during the rainy season.

 

The solution: Working with tight monetary and time constraints, we put together a team of Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services security managers with the right mix of skills, Central American experience and personality.

This core team was tasked with sourcing additional local resources – both personnel and vehicles – and with carrying out advance work to ensure that the logistics and security plan would deliver on all objectives.

All of our locally sourced Honduran travel security managers spoke Spanish and English and had training in field medical care. In addition to these security managers, we also identified and vetted local armed security who had the training to handle worst-case scenarios and were capable of blending unobtrusively into the environment.

As budgets did not allow for the latest model Land Rovers, we worked locally to source a number of vehicles that could keep our entourage moving safely and relatively comfortably along back roads.

Could Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services provide safe travel logistics for a group of inexperienced travelers to remote areas of Honduras and still allow the group to engage with the local communities – all on a restricted budget?

 

The results: Our combined team of US and Honduran travel security managers successfully managed logistics over hundreds of miles of remote highways, dirt roads and mountain paths without any security incidents.

In addition to navigating police checkpoints and muddy roads, our joint team helped the travelers manage a range of pre-existing health conditions while roughing it in the countryside. They responded appropriately to a variety of travel illnesses, minor vehicle accidents and wilderness related injuries.

Most importantly for our client, the travelers were able to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience that brought them up close and personal with the rural communities which the philanthropic organization serves – all while staying safe and secure.

Allied Universal® Executive Protection & Intelligence Services continues to support these trips, and the client has now committed to a long-term contract that will allow many other groups to enjoy the same experience.