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OUTGOING HONDURAN PRESIDENT LEAVES ANOTHER PRISON MASSACRE FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO DEAL WITH.

Article Excerpt
A penitentiary shootout between rival gangs left 13 dead and 30 wounded in Honduras on Jan. 6. The mayhem came about a month after an announcement that Honduras and El Salvador had achieved advances in the treatment of imprisoned gang members and more than two and a half years after President Ricardo Maduro had announced comprehensive changes to the penal system for the purpose of preventing this sort of thing. Since Maduro's May 2003 announcement, a hundred or so prisoners have preceded these 13 into brutal death by fire, bullet, bludgeon, and blade.

Authorities said the killings resulted from an armed clash between two rival groups in a dispute regarding drug-dealing territory within the prison. Security Minister Armando Calidonio told reporters he did not know how the arms got into the prison. The fight broke out in a module known as Casa Blanca, where more than 400 of the most dangerous inmates are housed. These include people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape, bank robbery, and kidnapping. Casa Blanca is an area within the Penetenciaria Nacional (PN) of about 110 square meters, with numerous cells, a yard, and a terraza. The PN is in Tamara, about 25 km north of Tegucigalpa.

While officials may not know how the weapons entered the prisons, it has been established that two guns found on the premises and used in the slayings belonged to the Policia Nacional de Honduras (PNH).

Following the brawl, authorities sent in investigators,...

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