The “preliminary” assessment of clashes between rival gangs on Tuesday in a women’s prison in Honduras is particularly heavy. This explosion of violence, which caused a fire, led to the death of at least 41 women. The police have not yet been able to specify whether all the victims are detainees.
The majority of the victims burned to death while others succumbed to gunshot wounds, prosecutors’ spokesman Yuri Mora said. In this prison located about 25 km north of Tegucigalpa, the brawl also left five injured. They were transported to a hospital in the capital, said police spokesman Edgardo Barahona.
Investigation to determine which gang is behind the assault
Honduran President Xiomara Castro (left) said she was “shattered by the monstrous assassination (…) planned by the maras”, the criminal gangs that terrorize the country. She demanded “accounts” in particular from the Minister of the Interior by promising “drastic measures”. An investigation is underway to determine which gang is behind the attack.
According to the family representative of the detainees, Delma Ordoñez, the victims are members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, which seems to indicate, according to her, that the attack was carried out by detainees of the rival Barrio 18 gang. a criminal gang broke into the cell of a rival gang and set fire to it, she assured the press. This sector of the Tamara prison, where some 900 women are detained, was “completely destroyed” by the fire, according to Delma Ordoñez.
Former president extradited to US for drug trafficking
Honduras is plagued by corruption and terror reigned by the “maras”, who engage, as in neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador, in racketeering, drug trafficking and hired murder. Organized crime is responsible for a particularly high rate of homicides, which last year amounted to 40 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, four times higher than the world average, excluding conflict zones.
According to the authorities, despite measures taken to control the country’s 26 prisons where around 20,000 people are detained, the leaders of the incarcerated criminal gangs continue to order crimes and misdemeanors from their cells.
Honduras is an important transit node for cocaine from Colombia to the United States. The previous president of this Central American country Juan Orlando Hernandez was also handed over in April 2022 to American justice who claimed him for drug trafficking. His brother “Tony”, convicted of drug trafficking, had been sentenced to life in prison a year earlier by a New York court.