/REPEAT/HONDURAS-PRISONS: Crisis Heats Up with Fifth Riot

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug 13 1997 (IPS) - The fifth riot in two months heated up the crisis racking the Honduran prison system, which is characterised by over-crowded rundown houses adapted for use as penitentiaries.

More than 300 inmates of a prison in the eastern Honduran city of Danli, on the Nicaraguan border, rioted Wednesday, protesting overcrowded conditions, bad food and inhumane treatment by prison personnel. They joined their voices to those of inmates in a Tegucigalpa prison who are urging the government to pardon unsentenced prisoners.

More than 8,000 of the over 9,500 inmates of this Central American country’s 23 penitentiaries have not yet been sentenced, due to the slow functioning of the courts – a serious problem Honduras shares with many other Latin American countries, notably Venezuela and Uruguay.

In late 1996, the government issued a decree that provided for the release of unsentenced detainees charged with midemeanours. Although the decree began to be applied early this year, only slightly over 100 inmates have been freed.

Interior Minister Efrain Moncada admitted that the prison system was in the grips of a serious crisis, which he blamed on 50 years of government neglect.

The administration of Carlos Roberto Reina created two special commissions this week – one to address prison security, which will be reinforced by army troops, and the other to draw up a proposal for easing the overcrowding of the penitentiaries.

The current wave of riots first broke out two months ago in the southern department of Choluteca, where 570 inmates burnt down their prison. Due to the continuous intense heat in the area and the insufficient available space, the prisoners had been sleeping in the courtyard at night and were squeezed almost one on top of another into small rooms during the daytime.

The roughly 100 inmates of a prison in Nacaome, also in southern Honduras, later burnt down their facility and escaped, but were recaptured and sent to the Central Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa.

On Sunday, 10 prisoners escaped from the prison of the western department of Santa Barbara. The adoption of disciplinary measures by prison officials then triggered a riot that culminated in the burning of the prison and a mass escape by more than 400 prisoners, the majority of whom were recaptured.

And on Monday, 216 inmates of the Trujillo prison followed suit, and set fire to their rundown prison.

Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares blamed the current crisis on the “slow and unjust” judicial system. While judges take years to resolve cases, unsentenced inmates languish in prison, he said.

Another serious problem is that more space is needed, he added. Honduran prisons are in appalling conditions, and – with the exception of the Central Penitentiary in Tegucigalpa – are old houses adapted for use as penitentiary facilities.

Some efforts have been made. The National Penitentiary, located in Tamara, 30 kms from the capital, has been expanded and refurbished, a project that suffered stops and starts since 1993 due to administrative irregularities. The inmates of the Central Penitentiary are soon to be transferred there.

The roughly 2,800 inmates of the Central Penitentiary, headecd by retired colonel Rolando Mejia – being held on drug trafficking charges – are asking the government to pardon unsentenced prisoners.

But Interior Minister Moncada says constitutional changes are needed and a series of legal requisites would first have to be met.

Attorney-general Edmundo Orellana says a pardon cannot be hastily extended, because the constitution considers such a measure an “act of mercy” for those charged with misdemeanours which is generally granted when a new administration enters office.

Deputy Jorge Madariaga of the governing Liberal Party maintained that the prisoners were taking advantage of the period running up to the Nov. 30 general elections to press the government for concessions.

The Reina administration did yield recently to pressure from public employees, teachers and doctors, agreeing to wage rises to go into effect in 1998. It is also under pressure from the country’s seven indigenous groups, which are demanding land titles, infrastructure works, healthcare and educational facilities.

The president has pleaded a shortage of funds to address the spate of demands.