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At least 31 killed in Guatemala prison gang war
Attacks carried out with knives, guns, grenades in prisons across country

ESCUINTLA, Guatemala - Gang members staged simultaneous riots in at least seven Guatemalan prisons on Monday, attacking rivals with grenades, guns and knives in coordinated chaos that left 31 inmates dead, officials said.

The riots apparently began with attacks by members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang against rivals of the MS-18 gang, said Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann.

He said 31 inmates died before the riots were brought under control shortly after noon.

An Associated Press photographer saw 18 bodies, many riddled with bullet wounds, carried from El Hoyon prison, which was specifically built to hold gang members in Escuintla, 30 miles south of the capital. A guard and 61 inmates were injured at El Hoyon, and tattooed gang members bleeding from knife wounds were carried from the prison on stretchers.

Escuintla Gov. Luis Munoz said the riot began with the explosion of two grenades.

As explosions echoed from inside the small, converted police barracks in downtown Escuintla on Monday morning, nearby storekeepers rattled metal shutters down over the shop windows and crowds of visitors pressed police for information.

The explosions stopped within an hour. Police first began removing the injured, then the dead.

Dozens of relatives, many of them the mothers of young gang members wept hysterically as stretchers were carried from the prison. The dead were taken to a morgue. So many were injured that they overflowed the capacity of the two local hospitals, forcing officials to take some elsewhere.

‘Constant communication’

Vielmann said visitors had brought guns into the prisons. “Until we have finished the high-security prisons (now under construction), that problem will persist,” he said.

Speaking about the apparent coordination of the attacks, Vielmann said, “the gangs maintain constant communication. They have a Web page and not only synchronize in Guatemala, they synchronize with El Salvador, Honduras and with the United States.”

He said they also use cellular phones and messages passed by prison visitors.

Human Rights Prosecutor Sergio Morales said there was evidence that police had helped gang members smuggle weapons into El Hoyon.

Guatemala prison riots kill dozens
More than 30 dead in gang clashes at prisons

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala -- Inmates from rival gangs clashed in three Guatemalan prisons Monday, leaving at least 31 prisoners dead before police restored order, the country's interior minister said.

Many of the prisoners were from the country's largest street gang, Mara Salvatrucha, which has spread throughout Central America and parts of the United States.

Some prisoners had obtained weapons ranging from knives to AK-47 assault rifles, Interior Minister Carlos Vielman said.

One police officer was wounded trying to put down the riots, Vielman said.

The riots broke out about 9 a.m. (1500 GMT) at the Pavon prison in Guatemala City and two others in southern Guatemala, Granja Pino Canada and El Hoyon. Prisoners had been complaining that gang members were being dispersed to facilities around the country, Vielman said.

Vielman said the riots pitted members of Mara Salvatrucha against rivals Mara 18 and Mara 13, with other inmates not affiliated with gangs battling gang members, as well.

Investigators had not determined how the inmates obtained weapons or whether the disturbances, which occurred on a Guatemalan national holiday, had been coordinated attacks, he said. But in the El Hoyon riot, Vielman said unaffiliated inmates appeared to have moved against gang members when the riots began.

The Associated Press reported that the El Hoyon prison holds 400 alleged gang members.

The prison was converted from a former police barracks in 2003 after a December 2002 riot involving gang members at another prison east of the capital in which 14 inmates died, the AP reported.

About 50,000 of Guatemala's population of 12 million belong to street gangs, authorities estimate. The nation's prisons face chronic underfunding, Reuters reported.

Street gangs known as "maras" are widespread in Central America, according to the Reuters news service, and are known for their use of extreme violence and a deadly feud between the two principal gangs.

Governments throughout Central America have been waging battles against the Mara Salvatrucha and related gangs, according to The Associated Press.

Governments in the region have tightened laws and thrown thousands of the tattooed gang members into prisons, which have often seen clashes between feuding factions, according to the AP.

The groups are especially feared in Honduras; 23 people were killed there in a Christmas-time bus massacre blamed on the gangs last year, Reuters reports.

In April, former Honduran prison chief Oscar Sanchez was jailed for 19 years for his role in the killing of 68 inmates, mainly gang members, during a prison riot in 2003, according to Reuters.

In May 2004, a fire swept through a prison in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, killing 107 inmates, most of them Mara Salvatrucha members, The Associated Press reports.

In El Salvador, riots broke out in February when an alleged gang member was transferred to a top-security facility, according to the AP. One inmate was killed and another injured.

Eight hundred gang members had rioted at two Salvadoran prisons in September, the AP reports.

CNN's Patzy Vazquez contributed to this report.

Relatives mourn prison-riot deaths
By Will Weissert - ASSOCIATED PRESS - August 17, 2005

GUATEMALA CITY -- Anxious family members lined up outside a morgue yesterday to identify the bodies of 31 young male prisoners killed during near-simultaneous gang riots in seven Guatemalan prisons.

The violence, which demonstrated the strength of Central American gangs, began Monday with two grenade explosions at a makeshift prison for gang members. That was followed by coordinated attacks by Mara Salvatrucha gang members against the rival MS-18 gang at other prisons, Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann and Escuintla Gov. Luis Alberto Munoz said.

Guatemalans lined up yesterday outside a small pink-and-white building that served as a morgue to identify the dead inmates.

"There is no security anywhere. Not even prisoners are safe," said Ingrid Hernandez, 31, who waited with eight other family members to identify the body of her son, 19-year-old gang member Eswin Rolando Hernandez.

"This is a war, and the gang members are winning," said Rolando Gamez, 41, who waited to see whether his son, Gerardo Gamez, 17, was among the victims.

At El Hoyon Prison, the converted former police barracks where 400 purported gang members were housed when the attacks began, authorities rummaged through piles of trash, foul-smelling mattresses and clothes in search of weapons and clues.

Eighteen inmates died within about 45 minutes at the prison, which is in downtown Escuintla, a provincial capital 30 miles south of the capital, Guatemala City.

Officials said gang members used cell phones and text messages passed by visitors to coordinate the near-simultaneous rioting in the prisons.

Three prisoners were reported killed at the Canada Prison Farm, 10 miles south of El Hoyon. Mr. Vielmann said eight died in rioting at Guatemala's top-security Pavon prison, about 15 miles east of the capital. Two more were stabbed to death at a prison in Mazatenango, 85 miles southwest of the capital, officials said.

Mr. Vielmann said smaller disturbances were quashed at three other prisons.

MS-18 is a violent street gang similar to MS-13, but is a combination of Mara Salvatrucha members and members of the 18th Street Gang. They are two of the most prominent gangs in Central America.

The FBI has estimated that there are 50,000 to 70,000 members of MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang in El Salvador and Honduras.

Law-enforcement officials in Guatemala said the gangs emerged in Los Angeles and later spread to Central America, when criminal migrants were deported back home.

• Jon Ward contributed to this report.

Guatemala gang: Prison weapons easy to get
El Hoyon holds 400 alleged gang members. It which was opened at an old police barracks after a December 2002 riot involving gang members at another prison in which 14 inmates died.

In the other riots Monday, three inmates died Monday at the Canada Prison Farm 12 miles further south, and officials said eight died in rioting at Guatemala’s top-security Pavon prison, about 15 miles east of the capital.

Two stabbings

Two others were stabbed to death at a prison in Mazatenango, 85 miles southwest of the capital, according to officials.

Vielmann said smaller disturbances were quashed at three other prisons.

Law enforcement officials say the gangs emerged in Los Angeles and later spread to Central America when criminal migrants were deported back home.

Governments throughout Central America have been waging a campaign against the Mara Salvatrucha and related gangs, tightening laws and throwing thousands of the tattooed gang members into prisons, which have often seen clashes between feuding factions.

In May 2004, a fire swept through a prison in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, killing 107 inmates, most of them Mara Salvatrucha members.

That fire came 13 months after some suspected gang members were locked in their cells, doused with gasoline and set ablaze during a riot at the El Porvenir prison farm near the Honduran city of La Ceiba. Nearly 70 people, including prisoners, visitors and guards, were killed.

In El Salvador, riots broke out in February when an alleged gang member was transferred to a top-security facility, and one inmate was killed. In September, 800 gang members rioted at two Salvadoran prisons.

Gang members blame rivals for prison riots
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala - Members of a violent Central American gang on Tuesday claimed they routinely pay prison guards to provide them with weapons, and they blamed a rival group for starting coordinated riots at seven prisons that left 31 inmates dead.

Interviewed as they recovered from gunshot and stab wounds, members of the Mara 18 blamed Monday's near-simultaneous uprisings at Guatemalan prisons on the rival Mara Salvatrucha gang. Gangs are known as "maras" in Central America.

Monday's violence began with two grenade explosions at a prison for gang members known as El Hoyon in Escuintla, officials said.

It was followed by coordinated attacks by Mara Salvatrucha gang members against the Mara 18 gang at six other prisons, officials said.

Most of the injured belonged to Mara 18, according to local media.

News images from the Riot

A dead inmate is seen at the local morgue after a prison riot caused by a fight between rival gangs in Escuintla, Guatemala, 56 kms. (34 miles) south of Guatemala City, on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005. A well-coordinated series of riots at four prisons across Guatemala saw members of one gang attack another, killing more than 30

Prison inmates belonging to the Mara 18 gang sit as they are kept separate from their rival Salvatrucha gang at the Escuintla's prision, 56 kms. (34 miles) south of the capital Guatemala City, Guatemala on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005. A well-coordinated series of riots at four prisons across Guatemala saw members of one gang

Patrocinio Santos Alvizuriz rests handcuffed to the bed in Escuintla's city hospital after being wounded yesterday during a riot between inmates at the prison in Escuintla, Guatemala, 56 kms. (34miles) south of the capital Guatemala City on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005. A well-coordinated series of riots at four prisons

Inmate Eddie Geovani Rivera, 'Skinny', cries out in pain while being treated at the hospital after being wounded the day before during a riot between rival gangs at the prison in Escuintla, Guatemala, 56 kms (34 miles) south of the capital Guatemala City, on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005. A well-coordinated series of riots at four

Rescue workers carry a gang member injured during a riot at the El Hoyon prison in Escuintla, Guatemala, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Guatemala City, Monday, Aug. 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

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