At least one dead and seven injured is the balance of a simultaneous riot between two rival gangs registered this Saturday in four prisons in Hondurasreported the National Penitentiary Institute (INP).
The events were recorded in the prisons of calldepartment of Santa Bárbara (west); morocelidepartment of El Paraíso (east), and two close to Tegucigalpathe capital of Honduras, indicated the INP spokeswoman, Dignified Aguilar.
Fights broke out between gang inmates Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Quarteraccording to prison authorities.
One person died and two were injured in the riot in the lamama jailconsidered high security, while in the Morocelí prison there are three injuries, said the INP spokesperson.
Two other people were injured in the National Penitentiarynear Tegucigalpa, meanwhile, in the municipality of El Porvenir, central department of Francisco Morazán, it is still unknown if there are injuries, he added.
The INP authorities, together with the National Police, managed to “establish order” in the four prisons, Aguilar emphasized.
The Honduran National Police reported in a statement on the sending “operational reinforcements” to the four prisons to “watch over the lives of those deprived of liberty.”
“One of the criminal organizations would have received instructions from a group of people from outside the prisons to try to destabilize security national during the last days of Holy Week”, he emphasized.
The Honduran Police indicated that it does not rule out that “the same people who have orchestrated criminal activities in the past to damage the image of the current government are behind the planning of these riot actions in some detention centers in the country.”
Local media said that many shots were heard inside the prisons, but the authorities did not confirm if the inmates had firearms.
Prisons in Honduras are considered a “time bomb”, due to overcrowding, infrastructure problems and a large number of prisoners in preventive detention.
The Honduran prison system, made up of some 26 jails, houses 19,658 prisonerswhen its maximum capacity is 8,000and less than half of the inmates have been sentenced, according to official figures.
On July 4, 2022, a confrontation between gang members prisoners ended with six dead inmates in the Santa Barbara prison.
And on January 27, 2022, four inmates died and 11 others were injured in a confrontation between inmates in the El Porvenir prison,c on the Honduran Caribbean coast.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
Keep reading:
