Prisons in Honduras house an estimated 12,000 prisoners in
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
, with a general population of 8 million. There have been a number of massacres, including 69 people killed in a rural prison outside
La Ceiba
La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida and a port city on the northern coast of Honduras in Central America. It is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean, forming part ...
called ''La Granja'' (The Farm) in April 2003. On April 26, 2008, 9 people were massacred in a prison located in the center of
San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 671,460 ...
. On May 3, 2008, 18 prisoners were massacred in a prison to the north of
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...
, the
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...
of Honduras.
Ex pandilleros presos matan a 18 reclusos en cárcel hondureña
Due to problems with street gang
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...
s, prisoners are divided into 3 groups: Maras (active gang members), Pesetas (former gang members) and paisas (those who have never been in a gang before their incarceration).
Actual population
See also
* Comayagua prison fire
The Comayagua prison fire, or known locally in Comayagua as the Prison of Hell, was a deadly fire that occurred 14–15 February 2012 at the National Penitentiary in Comayagua, Honduras, killing 361 people. Prisoners trapped in their cells died b ...
*
*
References
External links
*Smith-Spark, Lauren.
Nasty, harsh, overcrowded: Life in a Honduran prison
" ''CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
''. Wednesday February 15, 2012.
Tegucigalpa
Riots and civil disorder in Honduras
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