On June 20, at least 41 women were killed in a riot at a women's prison in Honduras, which the country's president blamed on "mara" street gangs, which often claim vast control within prisons.
Yuri Mora, spokesman for Honduras' national police investigation office informs, the majority of victims were burned, but there were also allegations of prisoners being shot or stabbed at the jail in Tamara, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa.
Employees at a Tegucigalpa hospital reported at least seven female convicts were being treated for gunshot and knife wounds.
"The forensic teams who are removing bodies confirm that they have counted 41," Mora said.
Local media interviewed an injured inmate outside the hospital, who claimed that prisoners from the feared Barrio 18 gang rushed into a cell block and shot or lit other inmates on fire.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro claimed that the violence was "planned by maras with the knowledge and cooperation of security authorities."
Dozens of worried, angry relatives gathered outside the prison to learn what had become of their loved ones.
"We are here dying of anguish, of pain. We don't have any information," said Salomón Garca, whose daughter is a prisoner.
The chief of the country's prison system, Julissa Villanueva, indicated that the riots began as a result of recent attempts to tighten down on illicit activity within jails, and described Tuesday's violence as a reaction to steps that they are taking against organised crime.
Gangs have a stronghold over the country's prisons, where inmates frequently make their own laws and trade illegal items.
The uprising appears to be the greatest incident at a Central American female prison center since 2017, when girls at a Guatemalan shelter for problematic teens set fire to mattresses to protest rapes and other mistreatment at the overcrowded institution. The resulting fire and smoke killed 41 girls.
The riot on Tuesday may raise pressure on Honduras to imitate the harsh zero-tolerance, no-privilege jails instituted by neighbouring El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele. While El Salvador's gang crackdown has resulted in human rights violations, it has also been enormously popular in a country long terrorised by street gangs.
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