Honduras: 46 women prisoners slaughtered, president calls murders 'monstrous'

Forty-six women inmates at a prison in Honduras' Tamara town were slaughtered by gang members, the news agency Associated Press reported on Wednesday (June 21) citing an official. The official said that the gang members killed the inmates on Tuesday by spraying them with gunfire, hacking them with machetes and then locking survivors in their cells and dousing them with flammable liquid.

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Juan López Rochez, the chief of operations of the National Police, said, "A group of armed people went to the cellblock of a rival gang, locked the doors, opened fire on them." According to relatives, the inmates at the prison had been threatened for weeks by members of the Barrio 18 gang.

The national police investigation agency, meanwhile, said that 26 of the victims were burned to death and the remainder were shot or stabbed. At least seven inmates were being treated at a hospital in Tegucigalpa.

Honduras' security ministry spokesperson Miguel Martínez said that Tuesday's attack was caught on security cameras, up to the moment the gang members destroyed them. Calling it a planned attack, Martinez added, "You can see the moment in which the women overcome the guards, leaving them helpless, and take their keys."

President Castro calls killings 'monstrous', fires security minister

On Wednesday, Honduran President Xiomara Castro called the inmates' murders "monstrous'' and fired Security Minister Ramón Sabillón, and replaced him with Gustavo Sánchez. President Castro said the attack was planned by "maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”

Castro did not explain how the Barrio 18 members were able to get guns and machetes into the prison or how they moved freely into an adjoining cell block.

The weaponry found

As per the Associated Press report, 18 pistols, an assault rifle, two machine pistols and two grenades were smuggled into the prison in Tamara. The gang members were able to arm themselves, brushed past guards and attack. The members even carried locks to shut their victims inside, apparently to burn them to death.

“Obviously, there must have been human failures,” National Police Chief Rochez said, adding the police were investigating all employees at the facility.

'There were ample warnings ahead of tragedy'

Johanna Paola Soriano Euceda, who was waiting outside the morgue in Tegucigalpa for news about her mother and sister, both inmates, said on Wednesday that there were ample warnings ahead of Tuesday's killings. Euceda said her mother and sister told her that Barrio 18 members were out of control, adding they were fighting with them all the time.

"That was the last time we talked,” she added.

Another woman, who chose to remain anonymous, told the news agency that she was waiting for news about a friend who was jailed for robbery charges. “She told me the last time I saw her on Sunday that the (Barrio) 18 people had threatened them, that they were going to kill them if they didn’t turn over a relative,” the woman said.

Military police to take control of prisons

The Honduran government announced that the Military of Police of Public Order (PMOP) would take control of the country's 21 prisons for a year starting from July 21. The government said that the PMOP must recruit, train and educate 2,000 new prison guards for this purpose.

(With inputs from agencies)

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