At least 41 women were killed after a grisly riot at a women’s prison in Honduras broke out. Most of the victims were burned to death. The Honduran president blamed the violence on the “mara,” or street gangs that often wield broad power inside penitentiaries.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro fired the country’s security minister after an apparent riot at a women’s prison left at least 41 people dead, in violence that she linked to gangs and said happened with the “acquiescence of security authorities.”https://t.co/hnqi0hSpE2
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 21, 2023
It has been reported that twenty-six women were burned to death and the remainder were shot or stabbed. The prison is located in Tamara, about 30 miles northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation agency in a press conference over the incident. At least seven of the inmates are being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital.
“The forensic teams that are removing bodies confirm they have counted 41,” said Mora.
The government released video clips from inside the prison that show a pile of weapons that include several pistols and a heap of machetes and other bladed weapons that were found after the riot.
Border. Prison. WW intel:#BREAKING BREAKING: 41 dead in prison riot at Honduras women's prison – AFP pic.twitter.com/FURAh2xbKP
— WayneTech SPFX®️ (@WayneTechSPFX) June 20, 2023
Honduran President Xiomara Castro claimed that the riot was “planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”
“I am going to take drastic measures!” Castro wrote on social media.
According to reports, it was members of the feared Barrio 18 gang who reportedly invaded the cell block and shot or set inmates on fire.
Relatives of the inmates gather outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa for news of their loved ones.
41 women dead — including 26 burned to death — in Honduran prison riot that president blames on street gangs https://t.co/zhynADd4sz via @nypost Appalling and pointless
— #TheBurlingtonFiles (#BeyondEnkription) (@FaireSansDire) June 21, 2023
Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda was waiting for news about her mother Maribel Euceda, and sister, Karla Soriano. Both women were being held during their trial for drug trafficking. Although un-convicted they were in the same area as convicted prisoners.
Soriano Euceda claimed her mother and sister had told her that “they (Barrio 18 members) were out of control, they were fighting with them all the time. That was the last time we talked.”
It is a known fact that South American gangs wield broad control within their countries. In Hondourous the gang’s power inside the country’s prison system is legendary.
