Hundreds of police entered two prisons in Honduras on Thursday to regain control of places of detention where prisoners have brought in veritable arsenals by bribing prison staff.
Clashes between rival gangs at the Tamara women’s prison in central Honduras last week left 46 inmates dead, some shot dead and others burned to death in a center wing fire prison.
“The Armed Forces of Honduras, together with the Military Police of Public Order, have started Operation Faith and Hope in order to regain control and direction” of the penitentiary centers of El Pozo (180 km northwest of Tegucigalpa) and Siria (60 km north of the capital), the militarized police said in a statement.
Military police released photos of drug and ammunition seizures in El Pozo prison, the country’s harshest regime high-security prison, and Siria.
Photos of inmates gathered in a prison yard, wearing only shorts, were also released.
Military police said they seized a dozen firearms in Siria. She did not specify whether she had also seized some in El Pozo.
The two prisons, each with a capacity of 2,000 detainees, are intended mainly for leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs, which sow terror in northern Central America, Honduras, Guatemala and in El Salvador.
The Salvadoran president declared more than a year ago a merciless “war” against criminal gangs with a state of emergency allowing the arrest without judicial warrant of 69,000 suspects.
This offensive against criminal gangs earned him great popularity, and Honduran President Xiomara Castro has announced that she wants to draw inspiration from it.
The military police already intervened on Monday in two other prisons where heavy weapons were discovered, including machine guns, pistols, magazines with thousands of bullets, as well as grenades.
More than a thousand detainees have died in Honduran prisons over the past 20 years in brawls or mutinies, according to the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (public).
In 2012, a fire during a mutiny in the prison of Comaguaya (center) resulted in 362 deaths.
06/30/2023 03:57:32 – Tegucigalpa (AFP) – © 2023 AFP