International Courant
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras plans to construct the one island jail colony within the Western Hemisphere and ship its most-feared gangsters there, tearing a web page from neighboring El Salvador’s unforgiving strategy to homicide, theft, rape and extortion.
Honduras’s progressive president as soon as promised to handle gang violence by means of systemic reforms to governance and the prison justice system. Now, President Xiomara Castro plans to construct an remoted jail for two,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast, half of a bigger crackdown following the gang-related bloodbath of 46 ladies in a single jail.
Island prisons as soon as have been widespread throughout Latin America, with services in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru. Lethal riots, brutal circumstances and daring jail escapes captured filmmakers’ and authors’ imaginations earlier than the final island jail closed in Mexico in 2019.
In Honduras, authorities are betting {that a} return to the previous will assist stem the wave of violence, however skeptics say such strikes are little greater than optics, and fail to handle the foundation causes of endemic violence.
“A brand new jail is sort of ineffective in case you don’t first regain management of the others you have already got,” mentioned Tiziano Breda, a Latin America professional at Italy’s Instituto Affari Internazionali. “Legal gangs have proven all through their historical past that they will adapt.”
Final month, 46 ladies have been killed in a combat between gang members in a single jail. Lots of these killed have been sprayed with gunfire and hacked to demise with machetes. Some inmates have been locked in cells, the place they have been doused with flammable liquid and burned within the worst atrocity in a ladies’s jail in latest reminiscence.
Castro mentioned she would “take drastic measures” in response and crack down on the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gangs which have terrorized the nation for years.
Honduras’ President Xiomara Castro in Bogota, Colombia on Aug. 7, 2022.Fernando Vergara / AP file
The one option to talk to the Islas del Cisne is by satellite tv for pc, José Jorge Fortín, the pinnacle the Honduras’ armed forces, mentioned in an interview with The Related Press. Officers hope that can forestall gang leaders from operating their operations from contained in the prisons. Escape can be troublesome because the island takes a couple of day to achieve by boat from the mainland.
“It’s the farthest away they will probably be, so these gang leaders really feel the strain as soon as they’re on the island,” Fortín mentioned. “The thought is that they lose contact with the whole lot, contact with all of society … they usually can actually pay for his or her crimes.”
Fortín wouldn’t specify the price of the mission or when officers count on it to be completed, however mentioned Castro ordered the ability constructed as rapidly as potential.
For the reason that bloodshed, Castro’s social media has been speckled with photographs of weapons seizures and males with gang tattoos sitting spread-legged, half-naked and hunched collectively on the bottom surrounded by closely armed police.
The photographs mirror these from neighboring El Salvador, the place President Nayib Bukele has imprisoned one in each 100 folks within the nation, throwing hundreds right into a “mega-prison”. Bukele has mentioned inmates won’t ever once more see the sunshine of day whilst human rights group Cristosal estimates that solely 30% of prisoners have clear ties with gangs, fueling allegations of human rights abuses and democratic decay.
Sharp dips in violence in El Salvador have spurred on a form of populist pro-Bukele fervor throughout Latin America.
“If one other nation has completed one thing properly, why not copy it?” Fortín mentioned. “We’re not going to let this … ambiance of terror go on.”
However Breda, the professional, mentioned the transfer is inching the nation away from insurance policies resembling stamping out corruption, demilitarizing and neighborhood policing that might make a longterm distinction in addressing the roots causes of gang violence.
Honduras’s safety coverage “has develop into much more reactive and short-sighted, mimicking what’s happening in El Salvador to include injury to their public picture,” Breda mentioned.
The proposed measures are being well-received by many Hondurans, like 30-year-old biologist Mentioned Santos, who mentioned “ending the crime drawback as soon as and for all right here in Honduras can be preferrred for this nation.” However, he added, the federal government ought to proceed with warning.
In the meantime, regional biologists fear the mission will come on the expense of the island’s extremely biodiverse ecosystems at a time when the Caribbean is already being ravaged by the consequences of local weather change.
Largely uninhabited, the jail website has been designated as an environmentally protected territory for greater than three many years. Final week, the Honduran Biologists Affiliation launched an announcement calling the ability a “menace” to nature on the island, thats lush landscapes and glowing blue waters teem with life.
“A jail is incompatible with the ecosystems, species, scenic magnificence and local weather circumstances of the archipelago,” the group wrote.
Fortunate Medina, Honduras’ secretary of pure sources and the atmosphere, informed the AP that the utmost safety penitentiary can be constructed “in concord with nature.” He added that officers will comply with environmental protections however the facility will certainly be constructed.
“It’s completely viable,” he mentioned.
Honduras plans to construct solely island jail colony in Western Hemisphere
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