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Article Excerpt
Honduras' war on gangs took a coincidence-stretching turn early Monday morning, May 17, when, for the second time in a year, scores of gang members were burned to death in a prison fire. A year ago, a fire and bullets at El Porvenir prison killed 70 gang members. Monday's, at San Pedro Sula, killed 103. Both fires burned only cellblocks housing gang members.
In the latest blaze, most of those killed were members of Mara Salvatrucha. "Many of the guys who died in there were in jail just because they had tattoos," said 18-year-old Olmon Alberto Contreras from his hospital bed, where he lay with severe burns. He is one of a reported 27 hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns, some of whom are expected to be added shortly to the death toll.
Contreras said he was arrested in the Asentamiento Humano colonia of San Pedro Sula, where police routinely arrest anyone with gang tattoos and charge them with "challenging authority." From the bed next to Contreras, Santos Arnulfo Pena, 29, told an AP reporter, "If the police need to fill a quota, they go out and arrest anyone with tattoos. This is part of a plan by [President] Ricardo Maduro...
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More articles from NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs
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