Dozens of women die in grisly Honduras prison riot and fire

Relatives of inmates wait in distress outside the entrance to the women’s prison in Tamara, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

Elmer Martinez/AP

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A grisly riot at a women’s prison in Honduras Tuesday left at least 41 women dead, most burned to death, in violence the country’s president blamed on “mara” street gangs that often wield broad power inside penitentiaries.

Twenty-six of the victims were burned to death and the remainder shot or stabbed at the prison in Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation agency. At least seven inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalpa hospital.

“The forensic teams that are removing bodies confirm they have counted 41,” said Mora.

Video clips shown 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.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro said the riot was “planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”

“I am going to take drastic measures!” Castro wrote in her social media accounts.

Prisoners belonging to the feared Barrio 18 gang reportedly burst into a cell block and shot other inmates or set them afire.

Relatives awaiting news about inmates gathered outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa. They confirmed that inmates in the prison had told them they lived in fear of the Barrio 18 gang.

Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda was waiting for news about her mother Maribel Euceda, and sister, Karla Soriano….