Honduran arrested after selling her baby for $5

TEGUCIGALPA – Honduran police have arrested a woman said to have sold her two-month-old daughter for 100 lempiras ($5) and $1 worth of grapes, local media reported Saturday.

Karina Castro, an 18-year-old from west of the capital, Tegucigalpa, was reported by a friend to guards at the Hospital School.

Emerita Ondina Vega said Castro, who allegedly suffers from mental illness, gave her daughter born May 2 to an unknown woman, who has not yet been located, for 100 lempiras and grapes at Belen Market northwest of the city.

Castro “came here saying that the other woman, to whom she practically gave her daughter, had promised to return from the hospital,” Hospital School’s guard chief Javier Hernandez said.

But Vega said Castro had in fact sold her daughter and was arrested by police based at the hospital who have launched an investigation to search for the child.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America.