Honduras prison riot leaves 41 women dead

Most were burnt to death, with President Castro blaming the violence on gangs

A prisoner's relative is comforted outside the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion Social women's prison in Tamara. Reuters

At least 41 women were killed in a riot at a women’s prison in Honduras on Tuesday – with most burnt to death.

President Xiomara Castro blamed the violence on “mara” street gangs that often wield power inside prisons.

Twenty-six of the victims were burnt to death while the remainder were shot or stabbed at the prison in Tamara, about 50km north-west of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said national police investigation agency spokesman Yuri Mora.

At least seven inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital.

“The forensic teams that are removing bodies confirm they have counted 41,” said Mr Mora.

Video clips provided by the government showed several pistols and a heap of machetes and other bladed weapons that were found in the prison after the riot.

Ms Castro said the riot was “planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities”.

“I am going to take drastic measures,” Mr Castro said on social media.

Prisoners from the feared Barrio 18 gang burst into a cell block, shooting and setting alight inmates, AP reported.

Relatives awaiting news about inmates gathered outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa. They confirmed that inmates in the prison had told them they lived in fear of the Barrio 18 gang.

Police outside the prison following the fire and riot. EPA

Julissa Villanueva, head of the country's prison system, said Tuesday's violence was a reaction to action taken against organised crime.

Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda said she was waiting for news about her mother Maribel Euceda and sister Karla Soriano, on trial for drug trafficking and held in the same area as convicted prisoners.

Ms 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”.

Dozens of anxious, angry relatives gathered outside the prison, about 30km from the capital.

“We are here dying of anguish, of pain. We don't have any information,” Salomon Garcia, whose daughter is an inmate at the prison, told AP.

Prison guards guard inmates of the Women's Center for Social Adaptation prison. AFP

Azucena Martinez, whose daughter was also being held at the prison, said: “There are a lot of dead, 41 already. We don't know if our relatives are also in there, dead.”

Gangs wield broad control inside the country's prisons, where inmates often set their own rules and sell prohibited goods.

They are also apparently able to smuggle in guns and other weapons, a recurring problem in Honduran prisons.

It is the worst tragedy at a Central American detention centre for women since 2017, when girls at a shelter for troubled youths in Guatemala set fire to mattresses to protest against rapes and other mistreatment at the overcrowded institution. The smoke and fire killed 41 girls.

In 2012, in Honduras' Comayagua penitentiary, 361 inmates died in a fire in the worst prison disaster in a century.