Several injured in brawl at maximum security prison in Honduras

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Local media began to report the brawl around 8 AM local time (14:00 GMT). Still, initially, it was only reported that a policeman from the prison known as La Tolva, in the municipality of Morocelí, department of El Paraíso, in eastern Honduras, arrived wounded in an ambulance at the Hospital Escuela, in Tegucigalpa.

Unofficially it has been reported that at least four people died inside the prison, apparently due to the explosion of a fragmentation grenade, and that 39 others were wounded, while 16 were taken around 2:30 PM local time (20:30 GMT) in five ambulances to the Hospital Escuela and a hospital in the city of Danlí, near Morocelí.

Television news broadcasts have shown external images in which members of the security forces, armed with firearms, have been seen moving inside the prison, where dozens of gunshots have also been heard.

La Tolva is one of the two “maximum security” prisons in Honduras, where violent incidents have occurred with some frequency, with tragic results.

In October 2019, two inmates were murdered and, as if it were a message with a dedication to someone, soon the videos of both cases transcended.

With the inmates murdered then, the first in La Tolva prison, and the second in El Pozo I, in Ilama, Santa Bárbara (west), five inmates had lost their lives violently in 2019 in both prisons, which have cost Hondurans millions.

Six other inmates were killed, two in June 2017 and two in September 2018 in La Tolva, plus another two in El Pozo in October 2018.