Prison inmates in at least three maximum security prisons in Guatemala’s capital city ran riot on Saturday, taking 46 police guards hostage in a coordinated uprising to protest prison administrators’ decision to strip privileges from some incarcerated gang leaders, authorities said.
Clashes between security forces and gang members in Guatemala City prisons on Sunday killed seven officers, they added, even as hundreds of anti-riot police stormed Renovacion prison in Escuintla, about 76 km southwest of the capital, to free nine guards who had been taken hostage there.
Guatemala City’s Interior Minister, Marco Antonio Villeda, said armed gangs killed seven national police officers in assaults across the city. The clashes wounded another 10 officers, he added, and killed one gang member.
He said that police so far have arrested seven gang members, confiscated two rifles and seized two vehicles, praising the police response as “the result of not negotiating with criminals”.
“The state will not kneel before these criminals,” he said, portraying the attacks on police officers and coordinated prison riots as a response to the government’s intensifying crackdown on organised crime.
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Gunshots rang out as riot squads swept into the facility that houses gang leaders, with journalists stationed outside reporting that some guards were freed about 15 minutes later. They appeared unharmed, and no injuries or deaths to the guards were immediately reported, they said.
Police in the country’s southwest were able to regain control of one of three maximum security prisons, officials said.
However, over three dozen guards were still being held Sunday at two other prisons, authorities said, where inmates took control the night before.
Jailed gang leaders often order members outside the prison walls to carry out retaliatory attacks.
With tensions high, the Ministry of Education said it would suspend classes across the Central American country for Monday “to prioritise the safety” of students and teachers.
The police reinforced guards at several prisons and increased joint patrols with the military.
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