Massive prison riot erupts as MS-13 gang clash leaves dozens dead.

Tuesday, a battle between rival gangs at a women’s prison in Honduras rapidly escalated into a riot that resulted in the deaths of dozens of inmates.

Early Tuesday morning, rival gangs Barrio 18 and MS-13 clashed inside the penitentiary in Tamara, which is located approximately 50 kilometers from the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

At 8 a.m., according to Sandra Rodrguez Vargas, assistant commissioner of the Honduran prison system, attackers expelled security officers. Tuesday then unlocked the gates to a nearby prison. The women ignited a fire and then started assassinating the other prisoners with weapons.

President Xiomara Castro of Honduras condemned the “monstrous murder” of 46 prisoners, which she attributed to criminal gangs. Authorities discovered dozens of bodies after the battling ceased, with some of the victims believed to be unaffiliated with either of the gangs responsible for the conflict.

Yuri Mora, the spokesman for the national police investigation agency in Honduras, stated that 26 inmates perished from burns, while the rest died from gunshot wounds or stab wounds. At least seven detainees were treated at a hospital in the capital, with the majority passing away later that day.

Castro pledged that her government would take “draconian measures” after concluding that the disturbance was “planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and consent of security officials.” Officials could not explain how the gangs could smuggle firearms into the prison.

Castro stated that other women perished in flames, emphasizing her “solidarity with the families.” Castro pledged additional efforts to “combat organized crime and dismantle the prison-based boycott against security.”

This is the deadliest riot at a female prison detention center in Central America since 2017, when 41 girls were murdered in a prison fire in Guatemala. In 2012, the worst catastrophe of this type in Honduras resulted in the deaths of 361 inmates.

Julissa Villanueva, the director of the country’s penal system, hypothesized that the riot occurred as a result of government raids on prisons across the country that attempted to wrest control from powerful gangs and remove security guards who took bribes to assist them.

Villanueva promised that the government would “not back down” from these initiatives despite the substantial opposition they confronted.