The Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs moved their particular bloody war to the Women's Center for Social Adaptation (Cefas) in Honduras, located in Támara, Francisco Morazán. In this prison located 25 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, there was a brawl on Tuesday that caused the death of at least 41 women, of which 25 died burned in an arson and 16 riddled with bullets, according to preliminary data from the Public Ministry, although this figure could increase in the coming hours, given that at least seven women, between 24 and 62 years old, they were rushed to the Teaching Hospital located in the capital of the country, some with burns and others with wounds from firearms and blunt objects.

While waiting for an official report of deaths by the Penitentiary System and a judicial investigation, the first indications suggest that the Barrio 18 gang members allegedly locked up the rival women of the Mara Salvatrucha and set fire to module one with them inside, causing a massacre. According to the local press in the country, witnesses have claimed that cries of despair were heard and that the trapped inmates tried to climb the walls to save themselves without success. At the same time, other inmates shot other inmates in cold blood in different parts of the prison, as shown by prison security cameras, where armed women are observed searching one by one for their targets to kill them. One of the victims is a former cadet of the National Police Academy, who had been detained since 2018 accused of killing a 24-year-old student of the same Academy.

Likewise, images of the carnage committed by the inmates with one of the modules completely burned have gone viral, where the inert bodies of several women are observed, some of whom have a huge rock on their heads. The spokeswoman of the Public Ministry, Yuri Mora, has reported that five teams of Forensic Medicine have already been moved to the prison center and indicated that there are around 25 burned bodies, so it will be necessary to carry out DNA tests to identify them.

DETONATIONS OF GUNSHOTS AND SMOKE

One of the survivors, before entering the hospital, revealed how the attack occurred: "they only got into the module with an AR-15 and, subsequently, several inmates of the Barrio 18 gang entered the cells." Residents of Támara confirmed to local media that they had heard cries of despair and gunshots in the prison since the early hours of the morning and even neighbors of the sector shared on their social networks videos of the columns of smoke coming out of the prison.

One of the first to confirm that there were dead prisoners inside the prison was Telma Ordóñez, president of the Association of Relatives of Prisoners, who revealed that the prison authorities had informed the inmates that whoever had businesses inside the prison were going to take them away, while they were going to remove televisions. electronic equipment and microwaves, which generated discomfort. "It was not the way, but it was the actions they took," he explained, while revealing that "they killed three women who were in maternity and five people from the bakery and burned an entire module."

After learning the extent of the tragedy, dozens of relatives of the inmates arrived at the gates of the prison, as well as hospitals and the morgue to find out if their daughters, mothers and sisters were still alive or were among the victims. No one gave them any information while police and military surrounded the prison to let the firefighters and the staff of the Prosecutor's Office work.

Hours after the tragedy, the Deputy Minister of Security of Honduras, Julissa Villanueva, ordered the immediate intervention of the prison with the accompaniment of firefighters, the Honduran Police and military, after declaring the "emergency". "Well, action and reaction of iron fist now in the women's prison of Támara," said the deputy minister on her Twitter account in which she warned that "we will not tolerate acts of vandalism or irregularities in this prison."

For her part, the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, has acknowledged being "shocked" by the "monstrous murder" of women in the CEFAS, "planned by gangs in view and patience of security authorities." He also showed his "solidarity" with the relatives and called on the Minister of Security and the president of the Intervening Commission to be "held accountable." In this regard, he announced that he will take "drastic measures", although he did not specify them.

Meanwhile, Villanueva, who has been appointed by Castro as director of the Commission of Intervention of the Prisons of Honduras, has denounced that in CEFAS "vandalism has been reactivated and women, with weapons and balaclavas, generated burnings", although he has detailed that the fire was already controlled by the Fire Department.

The brawl occurred hours after authorities of the Ministry of Security ordered the transfer of highly dangerous prisoners in the maximum security prison 'El Pozo' of Ilama, in Santa Barbara, where there was a shooting on Monday, although it has not transpired if there were injuries. Thus, this penal center was intervened by dozens of police, while the Deputy Minister of Security also advanced that the prison located in the English neighborhood of La Ceiba will be transferred to another place with greater security.

MEASURES TO "BRING ORDER" TO PRISONS

In this line, Villanueva said, hours before the tragedy, that these operations are carried out with the aim of "recovering prison management, eliminating self-government and disarmament" in the prisons of the Central American country. "With a heavy hand for those who have weapons," he remarked, while warning that "we have identified one by one," so "we want to exercise control and we do not want aggression for them."

In a press conference, Villanueva denounced that "what happened today is the product of a direct attack by organized crime against the actions we are deliberately carrying out against organized crime." In this sense, he said that "we clearly understand the message that is brewing from those who have interests within the prison system, who stole the money, who looted, stole and have generated above all fear and anxiety."

Prison guards guard female inmates. ORLANDO SIERRAAFP

It so happens that the Honduran authorities announced on April 18 a series of measures to bring order to prisons controlled by organized crime. These include blocking phone calls through which they order extortion and murder, as well as a real disarmament of inmates and the classification of prisoners by dangerousness. The government of Xiomara Castro announced this intervention after there have been a dozen shootings or clashes

in the prisons of the Central American country, which suffer a deplorable situation of overcrowding and lack of hygiene. According to data from the Honduran judiciary, the prison population in that country amounts to 19,566 persons deprived of liberty, of whom 1,168 are women. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner in Honduras records 34.2 per cent overcrowding in the country's 25 prisons.

Since December 2022, Honduras implemented a state of emergency, which will currently be extended until July 5 after being extended several times, in order to reduce extortion, dismantle criminal groups, reduce gang violence and reduce insecurity.

FOURTH MOST SERIOUS INCIDENT IN PRISONS

The brawl at the women's prison is the fourth most serious incident in a prison in this country, the deadliest being the fire at the Comayagua prison on February 14, 2012 in which 360 prisoners died. Likewise, on May 17, 2004, a fire broke out in the disappeared San Pedro Sula Prison, where 107 prisoners lost their lives and 25 inmates were injured, which caused the State of Honduras to be condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in July 2022.

In addition, on 5 April 2003, a confrontation between gang members and police in El Porvenir prison resulted in the death of 66 people, including three visiting women. On May 3, 2008, there was a brawl at the National Penitentiary of Támara in which 18 people died, only two years after 5 prisoners died on January 2006, 13 following a riot provoked under the same pressure.

On October 14, 2011, another 9 inmates died in San Pedro Sula prison, where again, on March 29, 2012, a riot and arson caused by a confrontation between rival gangs resulted in the death of another 13 inmates. On the other hand, on December 20, 2019, 18 inmates were killed in a brawl in Tela prison, while on December 23, 2019, 19 inmates were killed in the El Porvenir prison in the framework of the war between Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18.

The tragedy of this Tuesday has already provoked the international condemnation of the coordinator of the United Nations in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, who showed her "solidarity" with the women with whom she shared on March 8 "listening to their stories and dreams". For this reason, he said that his heart "cries" and demanded a true investigation of what happened after expressing a "strong rejection of violence."

For its part, the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment asked the State of Honduras for a "prompt and impartial" investigation into the violent acts that have occurred in recent hours in the prisons of Ilama and the massacre in the women's prison. "It is essential that the authorities of the State of Honduras, in all branches of government, promote a radical change of attitude towards the prison system and react urgently and forcefully to the deep structural crisis that it is going through," he concluded.

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