Honduras

Honduras Reveals Plans to Build Island Prison Colony

Published JUL 21 2023

Story

Image credit: Unsplash

The Facts

In an interview with the Associated Press published on Wednesday, Honduran Armed Forces Chief José Jorge Fortín revealed that the country’s government is planning to build the only island penal colony in the Western Hemisphere so as to isolate gang leaders.
Daily Caller
The maximum security penitentiary — with an expected capacity of around 2,000 people — will be located on the Swan Islands, an archipelago in the northwestern Honduran Caribbean.
EL PAÍS English
While island prisons were once common across Latin America, with facilities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru, an island penal colony hasn't been active in the region since 2019.
Al Jazeera
The three-island chain, also known as the Islas del Cisne, are currently uninhabited except for a military garrison. The archipelago is approximately a day's journey away from the mainland by boat.
The Washington Times
Fortín added that communications will only be possible via satellite, an obstacle that may prevent gang leaders from running their operations while incarcerated. Neither a cost estimate nor a timeline for the facility have yet been disclosed.
Time
The decision to build the remote prison comes after a massacre at a female prison last month, in which 46 women were burned, shot, or hacked to death with machetes following clashes between rival gangs Barrio 18 and MS-13.
Daily Mail

Sources Split

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CENTER

RIGHT

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CENTER

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ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The building of a maximum security prison in the Caribbean Sea is needed to isolate dangerous and wealthy inmates, including corrupt people, drug traffickers, and gang leaders who have dominated Honduran prisons for too long. Finally, Honduras is taking steps to regain control of and restore security in the penitentiaries across the country.

teleSUR English

Narrative B

The Honduran government has clearly made a U-turn on its promises to address gang violence through systemic reforms, instead adopting a populist, reactive, and short-sighted security policy that replicates neighboring El Salvador. Not only is it unlikely the project will solve the crime problem in the country, it will threaten the natural environment of the island.