(Scypre.com) – A violent altercation erupted between rival gangs at a women’s penitentiary in Honduras, resulting in a deadly riot that claimed the lives of numerous inmates. The disturbance took place in Tamara, located approximately 30 miles outside the capital city of Tegucigalpa. The clash between the Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs ignited within the facility early Tuesday morning.
According to Sandra Rodríguez Vargas, the assistant commissioner for Honduras’ prison system, assailants overpowered security guards at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, subsequently unlocking the gates leading to an adjacent cell block. The female inmates then initiated a fire and launched brutal attacks on other prisoners using weapons.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro expressed outrage at the “horrific murder” of 46 inmates, placing blame on street gangs. Authorities discovered numerous bodies following the cessation of the violence, some of whom were believed to be unrelated to the gangs that instigated the incident.
Yuri Mora, the spokesperson for Honduras’ national police investigation agency, reported that 26 inmates perished in the fire, while the rest succumbed to gunshot wounds or stabbings. At least seven inmates received medical treatment at a hospital in the capital, but most of them tragically passed away later in the day.
Castro vowed that her government would implement “drastic measures” after uncovering evidence that the riot had been “premeditated by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and consent of security authorities.”
Authorities remained uncertain about how the gangs managed to smuggle weapons into the prison. Additional fatalities occurred due to the fires, emphasized Castro, who expressed solidarity with the affected families. Castro pledged further endeavors to combat organized crime and dismantle the internal undermining of security within prisons.
This riot constitutes the deadliest incident within a female detention facility in Central America since 2017 when a fire set at a Guatemalan prison claimed the lives of 41 girls. The most devastating catastrophe of its kind in Honduras took place in 2012, resulting in the deaths of 361 inmates during a fire.
Officials described these deaths as a “terrorist act” while acknowledging that gangs exert control over certain sections of the prison, as well as other penitentiaries across the nation.
Julissa Villanueva, the director of the country’s penal system, speculated that the riot arose in response to government raids on prisons nationwide, aimed at wresting control from influential gangs and removing corrupt security guards accepting bribes.
Villanueva assured that the government would persist in its efforts despite the substantial resistance encountered.