The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, announced this Sunday (09.04.2023) a “hard” intervention of the prisons of her country, after simultaneous clashes between gang members registered in four prisons left one dead and seven injured. In addition, inmates threatened the Anti-Maras and Gangs Police Directorate Against Organized Crime (DIPAMPCO).
“I know of the efforts of the Police and the Security Secretariat to reduce homicides and corruption, but I am going to intervene energetically in the prisons,” Castro said in one of five messages posted on his Twitter account. He assured that the “intervention will be harsh, but respectful of the humanity of the accused, their families and defenders. Crime is fought from prevention not only with punishment.”
The president said that on Monday she will make announcements such as appointments and the first emergency measures to face the situation. “What matters is the results,” he said. The announcement comes shortly after numerous shootings and riots in four prisons on Saturday, including the maximum security centers of “El Pozo” and “La Tolva”.
I know of the efforts of the Police and the Ministry of Security to reduce homicides and corruption, but I am going to intervene energetically in the prisons.
— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) April 9, 2023
“We’re going to kill him”
“I am going to put a strong hand and order in the prisons, until they are transformed into rehabilitation centers, not into schools of crime and torture like what I have inherited,” said the Honduran president. He added that “12 years (144 months) of looting and collusion with drug trafficking, maras, gangs and public and private organized crime, are not fixed in 12 months.”
After the shootings, the inmates told a local television channel that if the authorities do not stop “capturing and imprisoning people,” they will continue to carry out shootings and there will be more deaths. “Whatever man they bring we are going to kill in all the prisons,” one inmate said in a telephone conversation.
The confrontation that triggered President Castro’s measures was between inmates of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs, according to prison authorities.
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