IN HONDURAS, A JAIL RIOT KILLED ALMOST 40 WOMEN.

On Tuesday, violence erupted at their prison, which is located about 30 miles northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

In the gruesome uprising at the women’s prison, 26 people were burned to death, while the others were shot or stabbed until they died.

According to the New York Post, the country’s president, Xiomara Castro, blamed the deadly pandemonium on “mara” street gangs, which frequently wield significant control within prisons.

The spokesman for Honduras’ national police investigation office, Yuri Mora, also said that at least seven convicts were being treated at a hospital in Tegucigalpa.

“The forensic teams who are removing bodies confirm that they have counted 41,” Mora said.

The government’s video tapes from inside the prison revealed multiple pistols and a slew of machetes and other bladed weapons discovered after the disturbance.

The violence, according to Castro, was “planned by maras with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.”

“There are a lot of dead, 41 already,” Azucena Martinez, whose daughter was also being kept at the facility, added. We don’t know if any of our family are still alive in there.”

The country’s prison system’s director, Julissa Villanueva, suggested that the riot began as a result of recent efforts by the authorities to tighten down on illegal activity within jails and described Tuesday’s violence as a reaction to actions “we are taking against organized crime.”
After the riot, Villanueva gave a televised speech in which he declared, “We won’t back down.”

In the nation’s prisons, where convicts frequently establish their own laws and trade in illegal commodities, gangs exercise broad power.

Additionally, it appears that they were able to smuggle in weapons like rifles and other items, which is a concern in Honduran jails.

According to Joaquin Mejia, a human rights specialist from Honduras, “the issue is to prevent people from smuggling in drugs, grenades, and firearms.”