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Dozens of women killed in Honduras prison riot

Wednesday, 21 June 2023 11:15 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 21 June 2023 11:16 AM ]

Relatives comfort each other after a fire and clashes between rival gangs at a woman's prison in Honduras left at least 41 people dead. (Photo by AFP)

At least 41 women have been killed, some burned to death, after gang violence broke out at a prison in the Central American nation of Honduras.

Yuri Mora, a spokesman for the National Police Investigation Agency, said authorities found dozens of bodies after Tuesday's violence at the Tamara prison, nearly 50 kilometers northwest of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Prison staff were cited in local press reports as saying that some of the victims had been shot and that at least seven female inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital for gunshot and stab wounds.

President Xiomara Castro said she was shocked by what she described as a "monstrous murder" of women, which she blamed on powerful street gangs. "Solidarity with the families," she tweeted, adding that she would respond with " drastic measures."

Delma Ordonez, president of the Association of Prisoners' Families, said the fight at the prison broke out between members of the rival gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).

The head of the country's prison system, Julissa Villanueva, suggested the riots were sparked by recent official measures taken to crack down on illegal activity inside prisons, calling Tuesday's violence the result of "actions we are taking against organized crime."

“We will not back down,” Villanueva said in a televised address following the riot.

Gangs in Honduras often have extensive control inside the nation's prisons, where inmates often set their own rules and sell contraband.

The riot appears to be the worst tragedy at a women's detention center in the region since 2017, when girls at a shelter for troubled youth in Guatemala burned mattresses to protest rape and other abuses at the overcrowded facility, leaving 41 inmates dead.

The worst prison disaster in a century also occurred in Honduras in 2012, when 361 inmates died in a fire at the Comayagua penitentiary. Most of the victims had never been charged or convicted of a crime.

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