The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, said Tuesday that she was “shocked” by the “monstrous murder” of at least 41 women at the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation (Cefas) and asked the security authorities to “render accounts” about the fact.
“Shocked (by) monstrous murder of women in CEFAS, planned by gangs in full view and patience of security authorities,” Castro said in a message on Twitter.
The president summoned “to render accounts” the Minister of Security, Ramon Sabillonand the head of the Prison Audit Commission, the Vice Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva.
He also expressed his “solidarity with family” and announced that he will take “drastic measures.”
According to preliminary figures, around 41 women died and seven others were injured in a brawl and fire at Cefas allegedly after authorities announced new prison rules.
After the fight, the Vice Minister of Security ordered an “immediate intervention” in the prison and assured that the authorities “We are not going to tolerate acts of vandalism or irregularities.”
Villanueva said that the brawl is “the product of the actions of organized crime” in response to the intervention announced by the authorities in the prisons of Ilama, in Santa Bárbara, in the west of the country, and La Ceiba, in the Caribbean.
The Intervention Commission announced on April 18 a set of measures to bring order to the country’s prisons that imply the blocking of mobile calls, a real disarmament of the prisoners and the classification of the prisoners for dangerousness.
A dozen shootings or confrontations have been recorded since last April in various prisons in Honduras, where overcrowding and overcrowding, lack of adequate and safe physical facilities for housing inmates, and the hygiene and sanitation conditions are deplorable.
