It’s known as the world’s deadliest fire. But what the Honduran prison blaze has put a spotlight on is how overcrowded Central American prisons are because of street gangs with roots in Southern California. The gangs haven’t just spread from Los Angeles to Central America. They have spread throughout the United States.
Police officers detain members of the Mara 18 and MS 13 gangs in Honduras.
It’s known as the world’s deadliest fire. But what the Honduran prison blaze has put a spotlight on is how overcrowded Central American prisons are because of street gangs with roots in Southern California.
When the US stepped up deportations of criminals in the 1990s, scores of violent gang members were sent back to places like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, countries with weak law enforcement and an inadequate prison system. The result was a growing violence among gang members, and widespread police abuse as authorities rounded up suspects for having gang-affiliated tattoos.
Some, like many of the 355 killed in Tuesday’s fire in Comayagua, were never even charged with a crime.
“It was just a perfect storm, where they arrived in a country that was unprepared and had no infrastructure,” said Los Angeles police Detective Frank Flores, who has been battling U.S. gangs with Central American ties since 1999.
The victims of Tuesday’s blaze were still being identified, and it was unclear exactly how many inmates had ties to U.S.-based gangs — the most widely known being Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and 18th Street. But a Honduran government report, which was sent to the United Nations this month, said 57 percent of some 800 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.
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