By Josue Decavele and Sofia Menchu
ESCUINTLA, Guatemala/GUATEMALA CITY, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Guatemalan security forces were working to take back control of three prisons on Saturday after rioting inmates took at least 46 people hostage, as officials blamed the incident on gang members demanding greater privileges.
As of Saturday afternoon, there were no reported deaths or injuries among the hostages, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda said at a press conference. The hostages are mostly guards but include a psychologist, a prison official said.
Villeda said prisoners coordinated riots at three prisons, which he alleged were organized by the Barrio 18 gang, which was rioting because its leader is seeking a transfer to another facility to gain better conditions and special treatment.
A statement from the interior ministry said the riots were a “direct reaction” to the ministry’s moves to revoke privileges from gang leaders.
“I am not going to make any deals with any terrorist group. I will not give in to this blackmail, and I will not restore their privileges in exchange for them stopping their actions,” Villeda said.
At the Renovacion 1 maximum security prison in Escuintla in the south of the Central American country, police and soldiers formed a perimeter around the prison, as ambulances and firetrucks were standing by to intervene if necessary.
Inmates, some wearing jumpsuits but most in tank tops and shorts, their faces covered by masks improvised with pieces of clothing, watched from above, perched in the prison’s patrol towers.
One masked inmate, speaking from behind barbwire, said they were not safe at the prison and were demanding to be moved.
“They can’t even guarantee their own security, so how are they supposed to guarantee ours?” he said, referring to prison authorities.
While hostage situations involving prison guards have occurred previously in Guatemala, the Escuintla riot involves notably more hostages than in past incidents.
(Reporting by Josue Decavele in Escuintla, Guatemala, and Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Chris Reese and William Mallard)
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