Honduras intends to establish the West’s only island prison for gangsters
Boats take a day to reach the island, making escape difficult.
TEGUCIGALPA: Honduras will create the only Western Hemisphere island jail colony and send its most dangerous gangsters there, following El Salvador’s harsh approach to murder, robbery, rape, and extortion.
Honduras’ progressive president promised to reduce gang violence through governance and criminal justice reforms. After the gang-related murder of 46 women in a prison, President Xiomara Castro proposes to create an isolated prison for 2,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast.
In Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Peru, island jails were common. Before Mexico’s final island prison closed in 2019, deadly uprisings, horrible conditions, and daring prison escapes captivated filmmakers and novelists.
Authorities in Honduras hope a return to the past will stop the bloodshed, but sceptics argue such actions are just optics and don’t address the core issues. “A new prison is quite useless if you don’t first regain control of the others you already have,” said Latin America analyst Tiziano Breda of Italy’s Instituto Affari Internazionali. “Criminal gangs have always adapted.”
A jail gang fight murdered 46 women last month. Gunfire and machetes murdered many. In the worst recent women’s jail horror, some captives were trapped in cells and torched with combustible liquid.
Castro promised to “take drastic measures” against the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gangs that have terrorised the nation for years.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Honduran military chief José Jorge Fortín claimed the Islas del Cisne can only be reached by satellite. Officials hope that will stop gang bosses from governing jails. Boats take a day to reach the island, making escape difficult.
“It’s the farthest away they can possibly be, so these gang leaders feel the pressure once they’re on the island,” Fortín added. “The idea is that they lose everything, contact with all of society… and they can really pay for their crimes.”
Fortín said Castro ordered the facility built swiftly but did not specify the cost or completion date.
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