At least 41 inmates at a Honduran women’s prison died on Tuesday in an incident that family members say may have been sparked by a confrontation between inmates from rival gangs.
The spokesman for the Public Ministry, Yuri Mora, told Reuters in a telephone interview that the initial number of 25 deaths in the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation, located about 20 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, was updated to 41 and detailed that the victims died ” most of them burned and others shot”.
The official did not give details about the origin of the event because it must be reported by the Penitentiary Institute, after the investigations, he clarified.
Relatives of the inmates stationed themselves outside the prison to learn about the status of their loved ones. The center operates a room where there are 23 children who are the children of the prisoners, according to Evelyn Escoto, Commissioner of the state National Center for Prevention Against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CONAPREV).
“I’m looking for information about what happened to my daughter, but we haven’t been informed yet,” a woman who gave her name as Ligia Rodríguez said in a television interview from the site.
The president of an association of relatives of prisoners, Delma Ordóñez, said that during the early hours of the morning there was a confrontation between members of the rival gangs Barrio 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 in the prison, where there are some 900 inmates.
From the early hours of the morning, black smoke was visible from the outskirts of the prison, coming out of a module of the building, for which reason the firefighters, authorities, prosecutors and forensics were arriving at the place, according to images released by the media.
Seven other inmates are being treated at a hospital, a source at the health center said.
Honduras has a long history of events in its overcrowded prisons, among the most infamous is a fire that occurred in February 2012 that left 360 dead and was later declared accidental by US experts.
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