A gang fight that broke out at a prison in Honduras resulted in the deaths of 41 women by burning, stabbing, or gunfire.
The horrifying violence occurred on Tuesday in the town of Tamara, which is located outside of Tegucigalpa, the capital of the Central American nation.
According to President Xiomara Castro, the street gang known as the “maras” plotted the violence at the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion Social with the “knowledge and acquiescence” of the guards.
According to Sandra Rodriguez Vargas, assistant commissioner for the country’s jail system, the attackers’removed’ them from the prison at 8am and then started killing women and setting fires.
Another woman, who did not want to be named, said her 26-year-old friend Alejandra Martinez had told her ‘that 18 people had threatened them, that they were going to kill them if they didn’t turn over a relative.’
Victims of gang violence are sometimes forced to ‘turn over’ a loved one by revealing their name, address and description so gang-members can later kidnap, rob or kill them.
Gangs generally wield broad control inside Honduras’ institutions, something the government has being trying to crackdown on in recent months.
Tuesday’s bloodbath was likely a response to these efforts, the head of the country’s prison system Julissa Villanueva suspects.
‘We will not back down,’ she said in a televised address, while Ms Castro promised to take ‘drastic measures’.
Honduras and several of its neighbouring countries have histories of deadly prison incidents.
This appears to be the worst at a female detention centre in the region since 2017, when young girls at a Guatemalan institution set fire to mattresses.
They were protesting against rape and other mistreatment but 41 ended up dying from the smoke and flames.
Honduras saw the worst prison disaster in a century in 2012, when 361 inmates died at the Comayagua prison in a fire.
Honduran human rights expert Joaquin Mejia said: ‘The issue is to prevent people from smuggling in drugs, grenades and firearms. Tuesday’s events show that they have not been able to do that.’