Desperate relatives of inmates gathered outside a Honduran prison on Tuesday (June 20), looking for answers on their loved ones after a reported riot killed at least 41 people.
Honduran authorities are working to identify the bodies at the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion Social, a 900-person women’s penitentiary around 20 kilometers from the capital city Tegucigalpa. Families say they have been kept in the dark about the status of loved ones inside.
“They (authorities) haven’t told us anything. We’re waiting here. We don’t know what happened inside. We don’t know anything. From my side, I don’t know if my cousin is alive, neither my sister. I don’t know,” an unidentified inmate’s relative said.
“We want to know who are alive because they’re human beings, they are our family. We want to see them and know how they are. If all of them (authorities) are quiet, what are we doing here? Staying silent as well? No, we want answers,” an inmate’s relative said.
According to some reports, brawl had broken out at the prison in the early hours of Tuesday between members of rival gangs Barrio 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Local media reported that there had been a riot.
President Xiomara Castro said the apparent riot was planned by local gangs.
Source: Reuters
