Near-simultaneous attacks and riots at seven Guatemalan prisons that left 31 inmates dead show the organizational power of Central America's gangs, whose members communicate between prisons through cellphones and visitors, officials said.
Monday's violence began with two grenade explosions at a makeshift prison for gang members and apparently coordinated attacks by Mara Salvatrucha gang members against the rival MS-18 gang at other prisons, Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann and Escuintla Governor Luis Munoz said.
Rival gang members fought bloody clashes with guns and knives before the violence was brought under control.
Eighteen people died within about 45 minutes at El Hoyon, a police barracks-turned-prison for about 400 alleged gang members in downtown Escuintla, a provincial capital some 50km south of Guatemala City.
An Associated Press photographer saw bodies riddled with bullet wounds and tattooed gang members bleeding from knife wounds being carried from El Hoyon. A guard and 61 inmates were injured.
Three others were reported killed at the Canada Prison Farm 20km farther south and Vielmann said eight died in rioting at Guatemala's top-security Pavon prison, about 25km east of the capital. Two more were stabbed to death at a prison in Mazatenango, 140km southwest of the capital, according to officials.
Vielmann said smaller disturbances were quashed at three other prisons.
At El Hoyon, the sound of explosions at about 9am caused nearby shopkeepers to slam down metal shutters and brought hysteria to the mothers of inmates who had gathered for the prison's visitors day.
Police kept reporters, rescue workers and human rights monitors away from the prison until the gunfire faded. Then they began bringing out the wounded -- a process that lasted nearly three hours.
Then came the dead -- 18 bodies carried to the small morgue as police held back relatives who embraced one another and wept.
El Hoyon holds 400 alleged gang members. It was opened at an old police barracks after a December 2002 gang riot at another prison in which 14 inmates died.
Vielmann said Monday's attacks showed the coordinating power of the gangs who have spread terror throughout much of the region, prompting harsh official crackdowns.
"The gangs maintain constant communication," he said. "They have a Web page and not only synchronize in Guatemala, they synchronize with El Salvador, Honduras and with the United States."
He said cellphones and messages passed by prison visitors helped maintain contact among the gang members. Vielmann also blamed visitors for slipping guns to inmates -- something he said would be a problem until new, higher-security prisons are built.
Human Rights Prosecutor Sergio Morales told reporters there was evidence that some police, too, had brought guns to inmates at El Hoyon.
Law enforcement officials say the gangs emerged in Los Angeles and later spread to Central America when criminal migrants were deported back home.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS