A fire broke out this Thursday at the Comayagua Penal Farm, in central Honduras, apparently in the middle of a prisoner riot, and it is not yet known whether there are fatalities, reported the spokesman for the Public Order Military Police (PMOP). ), Jose Coello.
“We have preliminary information that what is happening is an attempted mutiny and smoke can be observed from the outskirts of the Comayagua prison,” Coello told reporters.
From the outskirts of the prison, a column of black smoke was observed, according to external images from local television, without knowing if the fire has already been controlled.
Relatives of the inmates stationed themselves on the outskirts of the prison, whose gates are guarded by elements of the National Police.
“External security protocols have been reinforced with different operational bodies of the Military Police, including the Army, the Air Force, to control the area,” said the PMOP spokesman, who has intervened in the country’s 25 prisons on instructions from Honduran President Xiomara Castro.
They report a fire and possible riot after hearing several shots inside the Comayagua Penal Center in Honduras. pic.twitter.com/FTqD8aM7WR
– Diario El Heraldo (@diarioelheraldo) August 10, 2023
Castro ordered the PMOP to intervene in the country’s prisons after the massacre of 46 women in the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation (CEFAS), near Tegucigalpa, and the massacre of thirteen people inside a pool hall in the Choloma sector , northern Honduras, on June 20 and 24.
Some 360 people died in a fire at the Comayagua Penal Farm registered in 2012, for which the Honduran Justice sentenced four former prison officials in May 2022.
The fire at the Comayagua Penal Farm, located about 80 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, occurred between midnight on February 14 and early morning on February 15, 2012 due to accidental causes, according to the official report of the investigation carried out by the Ministry. Honduran public and a team of experts from the United States.
At the time of the incident, the prison had 852 inmates, well above its capacity, 352 of whom were hit by the flames, in addition to a woman who was in the place visiting her husband.
Seven other inmates died at the Hospital Escuela de Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, due to the seriousness of the injuries they suffered during the fire.
Most of the prisons that make up the Honduran prison system operate in obsolete buildings, some more than a century old, and are totally overcrowded.