A riot Tuesday at a women's prison in Honduras killed at least 41 women, most oꩵf them burned to death, in violence li🐓nked to gang activity, authorities said.
Most victims were burned but there also were reports of inmates shot at the prison 🐼in Tamara, about 30 mile💜s (about 50 kilometers) northwest of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, said Yuri Mora, the spokesman for Honduras' national police investigation agency.
At least seven female inmates were being treated at a Tegucigalꦅpa hospital for gunshot and knife wounds, emp꧒loyees there said.
Julissa Villanueva, head of the country's prison system, suggested the riot started𒅌 because of recent attempts by authorities to crack down on illicit activity inside prisons and called Tuesday's violence a reaction to moves "we are taking agaiꦰnst organized crime.”
“We will not back down,💙” Villanueva said in a televised address ♋after the riot.
Gangs often wield broad control inside the country's prisons, where inmates often set their own ru♏les and sell prohibite𓆉d goods.
The riot appears to be the worst tragedy at a female detention center in the region since 2017, when girls at a shelter for troubled youths in Guatemala se🐼t fire to mattresses to protest rapes and other mistreatment at the badly overcrowded institution. The ensuing smoke and fire killed 41 girls.
The worst prison disaster in a century als🌃o occurred in Honduras, in 2012 at the Comayagua penitentiary, where 361 inmates. di🐎ed in a fire possibly caused by a match, cigarette or some other open flame.
