Riot Racks Honduran Prison

A massive prison riot left 86 people dead, dozens of others injured and authorities searching for escaped inmates, officials said.

The riot began Saturday with a fist fight between rival gang members at the 1,600-inmate El Porvenir prison outside of La Ceiba, a port city 120 miles north of Tegucigalpa, the capital.

Prisoners began setting mattresses and furniture ablaze in their cells, and flames engulfed one of the prison’s three wood-and-corrugated metal buildings, prison spokesman Leonel Sauceda said.

Of the 86 people who died, some burned to death, others died of smoke inhalation and the rest were killed by inmates wielding weapons.

Police stood guard outside the state-run hospital where wounded inmates were being treated, and most visitors were turned away. Hospital director Jose Canahuati said his staff counted 86 bodies.

“There are a lot of young people with bullet and knife wounds, and also with severe burns,” Canahuati said. “The operating room is full. The hospital doesn’t have room for so many patients, but we are taking care of the sick in the hallways and anywhere else we can.”

El Porvenir is a prison farm near the Caribbean coast where suspects facing drug, weapons, rape and assault charges are held while they await trial. Inmates grow beans and grains, and there is little security. Weapons and drugs are common, and gang members often control cellblocks.

The riot began after members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang fought with inmates loyal to another gang, La 18, in the prison courtyard. After a series of fights, both sides began using homemade knives and pistols, Sauceda said.

Jose Coca Villanueva, an inmate, said a major “territorial battle” sparked the riot.

“It was horrible, and all we could hear was the sound of screams of pain and terror. No one knew what was going on,” Villanueva said. “Everybody was fighting against everybody.”

It took firefighters, police and prison guards more than three hours to control the flames and restore order, and prison authorities were counting the inmates to determine how many had escaped, Sauceda said.

Soldiers and police patrolled nearby streets and searched neighboring fields.

The prison’s directors were suspended while a special commission investigates the case.

President Ricardo Maduro said officials would also analyze the rest of the country’s prisons and determine what changes needed to be made.