Coordinated prison riots leave 31 inmates dead

NEAR-SIMULTANEOUS attacks and riots at seven Guatemalan prisons on Monday have left 31 inmates dead.

The riots show the organisational power of Central America’s gangs, whose members communicate between prisons through cell phones and visitors, officials said.

The violence began with two grenade explosions at a makeshift prison for gang members, and apparently coordinated attacks at other prisons by Mara Salvatrucha gang members against the rival MS-18 gang, Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann said.

Rival gang members fought bloody clashes with guns and knives before the violence was brought under control.

Eighteen people died within about 45 minutes at El Hoyon, a police barracks-turned-prison for alleged gang members in downtown Escuintla, 30 miles south of Guatemala City. A guard and 61 inmates were injured.

Three others were reported killed at the Canada Prison Farm 12 miles farther south, and Vielmann said eight died in rioting at Guatemala’s top-security Pavon prison, about 15 miles east of the capital. Two more were stabbed to death at a prison in Mazatenango, 85 miles from the capital, officials said.

Mr Vielmann said smaller disturbances were quashed at three other prisons.

At El Hoyon, the sound of explosions at about 9am brought hysteria to the mothers of inmates who had gathered for the prison’s visitors day.

After the gunfire faded, police and rescue workers began bringing out the wounded - a process that lasted nearly three hours.

Then came the dead - 18 bodies carried to the morgue as police held back relatives who embraced one another and wept.

Vielmann said Monday’s attacks showed the coordinating power of the gangs.

“The gangs maintain constant communication. They have a web page and not only synchronise in Guatemala, they synchronise with El Salvador, Honduras and with the United States,” he said.