86 killed in Honduran prison riot

Soldiers and police were searching for escaped inmates after a massive prison riot in northern Honduras left 86 prisoners dead and dozens of others injured, authorities said.

The riot began yesterday with a fist fight between rival gang members at the 1,600-inmate El Porvenir prison outside of La Ceiba, a port city 220 miles north of Tegucigalpa, the capital.

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

Of the 86 people who died, some were burned to death, others suffered 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 located close to the Caribbean coast where suspects facing drugs, weapons, rape and assault charges are held while they await trial. Inmates grow beans and other grains, and there is little security. Weapons and drugs are common, and gang members often control cell blocks.

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 to defend themselves, Sauceda said.

Mara Salvatrucha and La 18 are the largest and most-violent of the 450 Honduran gangs that authorities believe have 100,000 members.

Jose Coca Villanueva, an El Porvenir 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 fire fighters, police officers and prison guards more than three hours to control the flames and restore order, and prison authorities were in the process of counting the inmates to determine how many had escaped, Sauceda said.

Soldiers and police patrolled nearby streets and searched neighboring fields looking for escaped inmates.

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. He urged court officials to help move people through the justice system faster so that fewer would be waiting for a trial.

Honduras' 26 prisons were built to house 5,500 inmates but are crammed with 13,000 prisoners, according to government statistics.

Although prison riots are common in Latin America — where jails are overcrowded and loosely controlled — Saturday's violence is among the worst in recent history.

At least 111 inmates died in 1992 when 120 riot troopers stormed a cell block to quell a bloody uprising at Sao Paulo's notorious Carandiru prison complex, Latin America's largest. Unofficial accounts by human rights groups and survivors have placed the death toll at nearly 300.

Saturday's death toll far surpasses one of the more well-known prison riots in Attica, New York, which killed 43 people, including 11 state employees and 32 inmates, in 1971. All but four were shot to death when state police retook the prison, 30 miles (50 kms) east of Buffalo, after a four-day standoff.