Gang behind slaughter of 41 women at prison in Honduras, officials say

Families of the victims who perished in a brawl at CEFAS womens prison located in Tamara receive their relatives bodies on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa forensic medicine in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on June 20, 2023. (Photo by Emilio Flores/Anadolu Agen TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Inmates had complained for weeks they were being threatened by gang members at a women’s prison in Honduras.

The gang fulfilled those threats, slaughtering 41 women, many of them burned, shot or stabbed to death.President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday's riot at the prison in the town of Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Honduras' capital, was "planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities."Castro pledged to take "drastic measures," but did not explain how inmates identified as members of the Barrio 18 gang were able to get guns and machetes into the prison, or move freely into an adjoining cell block and slaughter all the prisoners there.Video clips presented by the government from inside the prison showed several pistols and a heap of machetes and other bladed weapons that were found after the riot.Sandra Rodríguez Vargas, the assistant commissioner for Honduras' prison system, said the attackers "removed" guards at the facility — none appeared to have been injured — around 8 a.m.

Tuesday and then opened the gates to an adjoining cell block and began massacring women there. They started a fire that left cell walls blacked and bunks reduced to twisted heaps of metal.Twenty-six of the victims were burned to death and the remainder shot or stabbed, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation agency.