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Honduran President Xiomara Castro sacked the country’s security minister after an apparent riot at a women’s prison killed at least 41 people. These were acts of violence that they believed were gang-related and “tolerated by the security authorities.”
The removal of Ramón Sabillón as security minister is part of Castro’s determination to “take back control of Honduras’ prison system,” according to state news broadcaster Channel 8.
The announcement came hours later amid a deadly riot and fire at the National Women’s Penitentiary for Social Adaptation in Tamara, about 20 miles northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa. The position will be filled by Gustavo Sanchez, the director of the Honduran National Police.
“I will take drastic measures!” Castro continued social mediaShe adds that she believes the uprising was instigated by street gangs “with the knowledge and connivance of the security authorities.”
Dozens of inmates were killed – many burned to death – after a riot broke out at a women’s prison in Támara, Honduras, on June 20. (Video: Julie Yoon/The Washington Post)
Police have counted at least 41 bodies so far, most of them burned, Yuri Mora, spokesman for the Honduras National Police Investigation Agency, told the Associated Press. At least seven inmates were hospitalized with gunshot or knife wounds, Mora said.
Mora said the death toll could rise even further as five forensic teams rushed to identify the victims. Mora told local media it could be difficult to identify the burned bodies.
Delma Ordonez, head of an association representing prisoners’ families, told local media a gang set fire to a rival gang’s cell and part of the prison was “completely destroyed”. She said the facility houses about 900 prisoners.
“We are dying here of fear and pain,” Salomón García, whose daughter is being held at the facility, told local media. “We have no information.”
Stacked corpses could be seen in pictures posted to social networks, and a huge plume of gray smoke could be seen in videos. Video clips from inside the prison, broadcast on state television, showed several pistols and a pile of machetes among the weapons found after the riot.
Julissa Villanueva, deputy security minister and head of the country’s correctional system, said gangs that exercise sweeping control in the country’s prisons may have started the uprising in retaliation for a government campaign to crack down on illegal activity in prisons.
“We will not back down,” Villanueva said in a televised address after the uprising.
Honduras has a history of fatal prison incidents. More than 350 people died in a 2012 prison fire in central Honduras, and a 2004 short-circuit fire killed at least 103 inmates.