Majority of dead Honduras inmates were awaiting trial

The inmates whose bodies were carried piece-by-piece from a charred Honduran prison had been locked inside an overcrowded prison where most inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report.

More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country’s capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members, according to a report sent by the Honduran government this month to the UN.

A fire started by an inmate tore through the prison on Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys. Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world’s deadliest prison fire in a century.

Survivors told horrific tales of climbing walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape, only to see prisoners in other cell blocks being burned alive. Inmates were found stuck to the roofing, their bodies fused to the metal.

From the time firefighters received a call at 10:59pm local time, the rescue was marred by human error and conditions that made the prison ripe for catastrophe.

On any given day there were about 800 inmates in a facility built for 500. There were only 51 guards by day and just 12 at night — the case at the time of the fire.

The prison has no medical or mental health care and the budget allows less than $1(76c) per day per prisoner for food. Prisoners only needed to bear a simple tattoo to be incarcerated under the strict Honduran anti- gang laws, the report said. The UN condemns the practice as a violation of international law.

National prison system director Danilo Orellana declined to comment on the supervision or the crowded conditions in Comayagua, a prison farm where inmates grew corn and beans.

President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday suspended Orellana and other top prison officials.

Inside the prison, charred walls and debris showed the path of the fire, which burned through six barracks that had been crammed with 70 to 105 inmates each in four-level bunk beds.

Bodies were found piled up in the bathrooms, where inmates apparently fled to the showers, hoping the water would save them from blistering flames. Prisoners perished clutching each other in bathtubs and curled up in laundry sinks.

“It was something horrible,” said survivor Eladio Chica, 40, as he was led away by police, handcuffed, to testify before a local court about what he saw. “I only saw flames, and when we got out, men were being burned, up against the bars, they were stuck to them.”

The deadly inferno never had to happen.

The frantic inmate who started the fire gave a warning, phoning the state governor and screaming he was going to burn the place down. After the man, who was not identified, lit a mattress on fire a few minutes later, crews said they rushed to the prison, arriving two minutes after a call for help because the firehouse was nearby. But the handful of guards held them out for a catastrophic 30 minutes, saying they thought the screams inside were a prison break and a riot. When rescuers finally were allowed in, they said they could not find keys or guards to unlock the barracks.

Fifteen minutes away, the US military’s Southern Command operates Joint Task Force Bravo, where major search and rescue teams and fire squads are on standby. They were never dispatched.

Yesterday officials continued their investigation at the prison, where murals of Catholic saints, Jesus Christ and psalms stand out in an otherwise miserable place. Two palm trees flank the front entrance where a sign reads: “Let there be justice, even if the world perishes.”

“Conditions at Comayagua? I’d have to say among the worst in Honduras,” said Ron W Nikkel, president of Prison Fellowship International who visited the facility in 2005. “It was very congested, there’s not enough food, it’s dangerous and dirty.”

The US State Department has criticised the Honduran government for harsh prison conditions, citing severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and lack of adequate sanitation.

Human rights groups and the US government also say inmates with mental illnesses, as well as those with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, are routinely held among the general prison population.

Honduras medics and international experts worked to identify the charred remains of inmates yesterday.

“The corpses are charred and some of them are stuck on top of each other,” said Johnny Ordenez, a soldier lugging the dead. “You have to peel them apart like an orange.”

Prison officials and rescue workers dressed in white hazard suits moved in on Wednesday to remove the charred remains, as distraught relatives wept openly, clinging to each other as they mourned the deaths of their loved ones.

Desperate relatives, frustrated at being left in the dark about the fate of their loved ones, clashed with police and stormed the prison gates. Security forces fired into the air in a bid to stop the unrest, but the relatives burst through a locked gate and flooded the facility.