Honduras: Military takes over prisons in crackdown on gangs after massacres

Inmates in Honduras had been compelled to take a seat half-naked in rows as troopers looked for contraband in a sweep of the nation’s violent prisons by the army.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro has vowed to deal with gang violence and has additionally put curfews in place.

The crackdown comes after final week’s gang-related bloodbath of 46 feminine inmates – the worst atrocity at a ladies’s jail in latest reminiscence.

On Monday, the army mentioned cell blocks had been searched the place a whole lot of rounds of ammunition, pistols, assault rifles and grenades had been discovered.

Official footage confirmed a whole lot of shirtless male inmates, many tattooed and with their heads shaved, sitting on the ground in packed rows at Honduras‘s high-security Tamara jail with their arms over their heads, guarded by closely armed troopers.

The bloodbath in Tamara, northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa, sparked outrage – triggering raids.

Women inmates belonging to the Barrio 18 road gang smuggled in weapons, machetes and a flammable liquid.

They subdued jail guards and burst into cell blocks housing members of a rival gang, spraying the victims with gunfire, hacked others to demise after which locked their cells and set them on fireplace.

Gangs typically have vital affect within the nation’s prisons, the place inmates set their very own guidelines and promote prohibited items.

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The pictures from Monday mirror related ways utilized in neighbouring El Salvador which beefed up jail safety in its crackdown on gangs earlier this yr.

Honduran police additionally arrested a suspect in a weekend pool corridor taking pictures within the metropolis of Choloma that killed 11 folks.

National Police Commissioner Miguel Pérez Suazo mentioned the taking pictures and bloodbath on the Tamara jail may very well be associated and authorities haven’t dominated out that it may have been “some sort of revenge”.

Ms Castro, who has put the armed forces in command of the nation’s poorly run prisons, has given the army a yr to coach new guards.

In addition to curfews within the Choloma space, she has introduced “raids, captures and checkpoints – 24 hours a day”.

The curfew in Choloma will run from 9pm till 4am, with one other within the close by metropolis of San Pedro Sula starting on 4 July.

Around 20,000 inmates co-exist in 26 overcrowded prisons, with a United Nations report saying the nation’s jails are 34.2% over capability.