Investigation into Honduras riot reveals security breakdown

By James Blears

The disintegration of security leading to the riot and massacre, with the lapses which facilitated and led to it, are utterly staggering. Authorities knew of threats from the Barrio 18 gang to a rival faction called Barrio 13, but did not act.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro described the events as: “Monstrous.” She confirms that there was collusion concerning some guards. The investigation reveals that eighteen pistols, an assault rifle, two machine pistols, two grenades, and machetes had been smuggled in.

Before the killers disabled security cameras, footage showed them gaining access through doors left open or ajar. They overpowered prison officers, none of who were injured. They shot and hacked inmates, then locked survivors in their cells, doused them with flammable liquid, and set them ablaze. Officials describe it as terrorism.

President Castro has fired the security minister and appointed the head of police. The entire penal system now needs a comprehensive overhauling reform, because it is already obvious that the prison on the outskirts of the capital Tegucigalpa in the town of Tamara was under the insidious influence of mob rule.

The prison is called the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion; it is patently obvious from what’s transpired no adaption of rehabilitation took place behind bars, where plans of murder and mayhem festered.