At least 41 people were killed on Tuesday at a women’s prison in Honduras, where violent clashes between rival gangs sparked a fire that tore through part of the facility, police said.
The deadly violence occurred at a prison about 25km north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, said police spokesman Edgardo Barahona, who put the “preliminary” death toll at 41 women.
It was unclear if they were all inmates.
Photo: Reuters
Five other women were injured and taken to hospital, Barahona said.
Hundreds of relatives of incarcerated women gathered outside the detention facility awaiting information about their loved ones.
“We don’t know who the victims are,” one visibly distraught man said.
Heavily armed soldiers and police were seen entering and guarding the prison, while teams of firefighters were also present.
Delma Ordonez, who represents inmates’ relatives, said that members of a gang — apparently the Barrio 18 — had entered the cell of a rival group and set it on fire.
That part of the prison was “completely destroyed” in the blaze, Ordonez said.
The CEFAS correctional facility in Tamara held about 900 inmates, she said.
Most of the women died in the fire, while some bodies were riddled with bullets, prosecutors’ office a spokesman Yuri Mora told reporters.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro wrote on Twitter that she was “shocked” by the “monstrous murder of women in CEFAS by gangs in full view and tolerance of security authorities,” and expressed solidarity with grieving family members.
A state of emergency was announced and Castro said she would “take drastic measures” to hold security leaders to account.
On Tuesday night, she dismissed Ramon Sabillon as minister of security, replacing him with Gustavo Sanchez, who was serving as the director of the national police.
Sabillon was reassigned to the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sandra Rodriguez Vargas, the assistant commissioner for Honduras’ prison system, said the attackers had “removed” guards at the facility — none appeared to have been injured — at about 8am, and then opened the gates to an adjoining cell block and began massacring women there.
There were ample warnings ahead of the tragedy, said Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda, who was waiting outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa for news about her mother, Maribel Euceda, and sister, Karla Soriano.
Both were on trial for drug trafficking, but were held in the same area as convicted prisoners.
Soriano Euceda said they had told her on Sunday that “they [Barrio 18 members] were out of control, they were fighting with them all the time. That was the last time we talked.”
Another woman, who did not want to give her name for fear of reprisals, said she was waiting for news about a friend, Alejandra Martinez, 26, who was been held on robbery charges.
“She told me the last time I saw her on Sunday that the [Barrio] 18 people had threatened them, that they were going to kill them if they didn’t turn over a relative,” she said.
Officials described the killings as a “terrorist act,” but also acknowledged that gangs essentially had ruled some parts of the prison.
Julissa Villanueva, head of the prison system, said that the riot might have started because of recent attempts by authorities to crack down on illicit activity inside prison walls and called the violence a reaction to moves “we are taking against organized crime.”
“We will not back down,” Villanueva said in a televised address after the riot.
Additional reporting by AP
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