Prison clashes leave 36 dead in Honduras

At least 36 people were killed in weekend clashes in Honduran prisons as the military and police try to regain control after a spate of murders linked to the criminal gangs plaguing the country.

On Sunday afternoon, 18 gang members died in a clash between inmates at El Porvenir prison, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

"Firearms, knives and machetes" were used in the brawl, which also left 10 wounded, Lieutenant Jose Coello, a spokesman for the National Inter-Institutional Security Force (Fusina), told local media.

On Friday night, 18 prisoners died and 16 were wounded in a shooting at the prison in the port town of Tela, northwest of the capital.

The killings came shortly after President Juan Orlando Hernandez -- grappling with a wave of prison killings -- ordered the army and the police on Tuesday to take control of the country's 27 prisons, which are badly overcrowded with some 21,000 inmates.

The security forces later said they were deploying about 1,200 military and police in 18 facilities classified as "high risk."
The president condemned the conviction of his younger brother, saying it was based on "the testimony of confessed assassins."
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras (OHCHR) said it observed "with alarm the violence inside prisons", and urged the state "to guarantee the life and respect of human rights to those deprived of liberty and proceed to a prompt, effective and transparent investigation."