Guatemala prisoners take workers hostages in riots across three facilities | Prison News

Officers say 46 employees are being held, with gang members behind the riots in search of higher circumstances.

Prisoners in Guatemala have taken not less than 46 employees hostage in riots throughout three detention centres, in response to authorities.

Officers mentioned the incidents, which started on Saturday, gave the impression to be coordinated by gang members in response to their chief in search of a switch to a different facility for higher circumstances.

There have been no reported deaths ​or accidents among the many hostages, Inside Minister Marco Antonio Villeda mentioned at ‍a information convention.

Villeda mentioned these behind the riots had been members of the Barrio 18 gang, whereas the Inside Ministry described the unrest as a “direct response” to its strikes to revoke privileges from gang leaders.

“I’m not going to make any offers with any terrorist group. I can’t give in to this blackmail, and ​I can’t restore their privileges in trade for them ‌stopping their actions,” Villeda mentioned.

The hostages are principally guards, but additionally embody a psychologist, a jail official mentioned.

On the Renovacion 1 most safety jail in Escuintla in Guatemala’s south, police and troopers shaped a fringe across the jail, as ambulances and firetrucks had been ‌standing by to intervene if needed.

Inmates, some sporting jumpsuits however most in tank tops and shorts, their faces lined ‌by masks improvised with items of clothes, watched from ⁠above, perched within the jail’s patrol towers.

One masked inmate, talking from behind barbed wire, mentioned they weren’t protected on the jail and had been demanding to be moved.

“They’ll’t even assure their very own safety, ‌so how are they supposed to ensure ours?” he mentioned, referring to jail authorities.

Guatemala has struggled to control its jail inhabitants in recent times amid rampant gang affect. Inmates, in the meantime, have reported harsh and harmful circumstances.

In October, President Bernardo Arévalo accepted the resignations of three prime safety officers after 20 gang members escaped over a interval of days.

“The hyperlink between the jail system and the criminality exterior must be minimize,” Arevalo mentioned in an interview with The Related Press information company earlier this week.

“That’s why all this effort to regain management of the jail system is essential.”