According to new reports, the Honduras military has begun assuming authority over the country’s prisons, after a violent clash among gang members that resulted in the death of 46 inmates at a women’s facility.
As outlined by Reuters, President Xiomara Castro of Honduras announced she would be handing control of prisons to the military police, in an oppositional move from her previous position to demilitarize security.
“Our mission is to defeat organized crime inside the prisons and we are (also) going after the intellectual authors operating from outside,” wrote Honduras Defense Minister Jose Manuel Zelaya in a tweet.
Following the announcement, official footage showed numerous male prisoners shirtless and lying on the ground of the high-security Tamara prison, guarded by heavily-armed soldiers.
The news outlet says that Tamara houses around 4,200 inmates in a facility designed for 2,500 and is one of two prisons, along with La Tolva, that has already come under the control of the military police.
Colonel Fernando Munoz stated that the military police had seized handguns, automatic rifles, ammunition, magazines and grenades from an area of the Tamara prison occupied by the Barrio 18 gang.
“The corruption in the prisons is over. We are going to control it and there will be no calls coming out of here to order extortion or executions,” the officer said in a press conference.