Global Courant 2023-05-18 20:34:21
Call, Santa Barbara.
The appellants Confrontations and shootings in the penal centers of Honduras worsen despite the intervention of authorities in recent weeks to try to stop the crisis.
This Thursday a new armed confrontation was reported inside the prison of Ilama, Santa Barbaraknown as “The hole”between inmates of rival gangs, apparently between the gang Barrio 18 and MS-13.
It was reported that at least two men were injured in the exchange of bullets. They were taken by ambulance to the Santa Bárbara hospital, the departmental capital. However, it was known that they will be transferred to the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula.
Their current state of health is unknown, as is their identities. Authorities of the penal center and the National Penitentiary Institute (INP) have not ruled on the matter.
without authority
Despite the fact that the Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanuevawas appointed by the president Xiomara Castro to preside over an intervention plan in prisons, so far it has not even managed to change the police chiefs who have been in charge of prisons since last year.
According to official sources, Villanueva has encountered legal difficulties on his way that do not allow him to assume the responsibility entrusted to him. In addition, there is a dispute between the Security authorities, with whom they say she has had strong discussions, since she has not been able to get the personnel she chose to work with her in the administration of penal centers to give her their agreement to take action.
Emergency
On March 1, 2022, the Government declared an emergency in the national penitentiary system by executive decree. Responsibility for prisons was delegated to the National Police, through its Strategic Directorate, as an oversight commission for a period of one year.
As a result of the confrontations between inmates from the 18 and MS-13 gangs, on April 10 the appointment of an oversight board was announced which, according to PCM16-2023, should be made up of a president commissioner and two deputies, all from free removal and appointment of the President of the Republic.
Reaction
Julissa Villanueva assured that she has broad powers to make decisions and make the changes that are necessary in the prison system, but did not answer about the measures she has taken. She did trust that she has encountered obstacles in the prison intervention process. Sources within the National Penitentiary Institute affirmed that the intervention process is not that it is not advancing, but that it seems that they are hindering it.
Information in development…
