41 killed in deadly riot at Honduras women’s prison

KABUL (Pajhwok): At least 41 women have been killed after a deadly riot broke out at a women’s prison between gangs in Honduras, media reports said on Wednesday.

Authorities found dozens of bodies after the violence on Tuesday at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles (50km) north-west of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, spokesperson for the national police investigation agency.

Some of the victims had been shot to death, and at least seven female inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital for gunshot and knife wounds, employees there said.

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

Delma Ordonez, the president of an association for prisoners’ families, told Reuters that a brawl had broken out at the prison between members of rival gangs Barrio 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).

The country has a history of incidents at its prisons – criticized for being overcrowded places with poor conditions amid an increase of organized crime Some 63 people died in a prison riot in 2003, and more than 300 people died in a prison fire in 2021.

hz/sa/ma