La Ceiba, Honduras
Eighty-six inmates died this week in a prison riot in La Ceiba, a town on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Most of the dead belonged to a gang—Mara 18—whose members tried to take over El Porvenir prison. About 100 of the so-called maras, armed with guns and knives, attacked inmates not loyal to the gang. Hundreds of regular prisoners fought back with weapons of their own, including smuggled hand grenades. The explosions started fires that quickly engulfed a large section of the prison, which houses 1,500 men. El Porvenir was filled with “screams of pain and terror,” one inmate said. “Everybody was fighting against everybody.” Outside, Hondurans said they were fed up with gangs. “We should just kill them all,” one man said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Anne Hillerman's 6 favorite books with Native charactersFeature The author recommends works by Ramona Emerson, Craig Johnson, and more
-
How Zohran Mamdani's NYC mayoral run will change the Democratic PartyTalking Points The candidate poses a challenge to the party's 'dinosaur wing'
-
Book reviews: '1861: The Lost Peace' and 'Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers'Feature How America tried to avoid the Civil War and the link between lead pollution and serial killers
