At least 41 people were killed in a prison riot at the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion Social, a 900-person women’s prison about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Honduras’ capital city Tegucigalpa.
According to Yuri Mora, a public prosecutor’s office spokesperson, investigators are seeking to identify the bodies.
Most of those killed were burned to death, while others were shot, Mora said. Another seven people were being treated at a state hospital, said a hospital spokesperson.
President Xiomara Castro stated that the violence was arranged by gang members with the knowledge of security.
Ramon Antonio Sabillon, the security minister, was replaced by Gustavo Sanchez, the chief of the national police, late on Tuesday. Sabillon was then transferred to the diplomatic service.
More measures will be announced Wednesday, Castro’s office said, to combat organised crime and dismantle the boycott against security fostered from inside prisons.”
The riot was likely in reaction to a government crackdown in recent months on corruption within prisons, said Julissa Villanueva, head of the penal system.
A commission established earlier this year invaded jails to seize control from powerful gangs and root out corrupt security officers.
Relatives of convicts gathered outside the prison late Tuesday to inquire about their loved ones.
Honduras has a history of deadly prison occurrences, with 18 inmates killed in a gang fight in a jail in 2019 and more than 350 perished in a fire in 2012.
