The Honduran government brought forward the date on which the Military Police of Public Order would start checking all prisons. Despite being announced for July 1, this was changed to surprise the prisoners.

This Monday, the intervention began at Támara National Penitentiary, 20 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, when a group of prisoners from the Mara-18 intervened and led them to a prison compound, handcuffed, with their hands raised. and shirtless.

Last Tuesday, the Women’s Center for Social Adaptation (Cefas) recorded the murder of 46 women, 23 died by gunfire and the rest burned to death, President Xiomara Castro ordered the PMOP to take control of all prisons, at least for a year.

At least 41 people have been killed in a confrontation in a women’s prison in Honduras

PMOP commander Colonel Ramiro Muñoz told reporters that rifles, pistols, chargers, ammunition, cell phones and other supplies were found in the first module of the seized M-18.

The detainees sat on the ground under close surveillance by military police, in an operation somewhat similar to those in prisons in El Salvador, ordered by that country’s president, Nayib Bukele.

Muñoz pointed out that if an arsenal was found in the first module, it must be assumed that there are also more weapons in the other modules controlled by the “M-18” and “MS” (“Mara Salvatrucha”) gangs.

On Saturday, the murder of 13 people was also recorded in a pool hall near San Pedro Sula, for which a special curfew was declared between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Partial curfew in northern Honduras after carnage blamed on drug trafficking

This Tuesday, Muñoz indicated that the intervention is being carried out with respect for human rights, despite statements by defenders on a copy of the trial that El Salvador conducted with the detainees.

The soldier pointed out that in the operation called “Faith and Hope” no comparisons can be made with the measures applied in El Salvador and asked the human rights defenders to “make the PMOP work”.

According to Muñoz, this Tuesday continued the intervention of the first three prisons with which the operation began on Monday: the National Penitentiary, the Women’s Center for Social Adjustment, where 46 women were killed on the 20th, both near Tegucigalpa, and that of Morocelí, in the east of the country.

“Human rights do what they have to do, that’s what they get paid for, but let us work,” the military officer stressed.