A spokesperson for the Attorney General's office in Honduras, Yuri Mora, announced that at least 41 inmates were killed in a women's prison in the Central American country following a riot. In a statement to Reuters, he noted that "authorities are working to identify the bodies in the prison, which houses 900 inmates and is located about 20 kilometers from the capital, Tegucigalpa." Mora mentioned that "some of the victims died from burns and others from gunfire." He added that "the government cannot determine the details of what happened at this time."
For her part, Delma Ordonez, head of the Prisoners' Families Association, told Reuters that "a brawl broke out in the prison in the early hours of yesterday Tuesday among inmates belonging to warring gangs," while local media reported that riots erupted in the prison. Images released by local media showed smoke rising from the prison building. Relatives of the inmates gathered outside the prison seeking information about what transpired.
Honduras has a troubling history of deadly violence within its prisons, where 18 inmates were killed in a gang brawl at a correctional facility in 2019, and more than 350 died in a fire that erupted in 2012.
