A riot at a women’s prison in Honduras left at least 41 inmates dead on Tuesday. The events took place in the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation (Cefas), a prison located in the municipality of Támara, on the outskirts of the country’s capital, Tegucigalpa.
According to the main Honduran newspaper, La Prensa, the deaths were the result of a fight between inmates belonging to two gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and the Barrio 18 gang.
The same newspaper states, citing unofficial sources, that “25 inmates died burned and 16 were shot to death and maintains that the riot left” dozens of women dead.
The Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva, ordered the intervention of the prison with a “strong hand” through her Twitter account. “Well, action and reaction, a heavy hand now in the female prison in Támara. We are not going to tolerate acts of vandalism or irregularities in this prison. Immediate intervention is authorized with the accompaniment of firefighters, police and military. An emergency is declared,” Villanueva tweeted.
Parallel to these incidents in the Támara prison, there was also a police intervention in the Ilama men’s prison, some 300 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, after shootings took place inside the prison.
