Chaos as inmates in 3 prisons hold dozens of guards hostage
Several dozen Guatemalan prison guards were being held hostage by inmates in three prisons Saturday following apparently coordinated disturbances, authorities said.
Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda said he was willing to talk with the inmates, but would not accede to their demands in seeking the release of the 46 guards.
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Earlier Saturday, Villeda’s agency said in a statement that the inmate uprising was a direct result of the prison administrators’ decision to strip privileges from some imprisoned gang leaders.
“In Guatemala, we don’t negotiate with terrorists nor with organised crime,” the statement said. “We also don’t allow groups that have sown fear to impose their conditions.”
National Police were deployed around the affected prisons. There were no reports of injuries or deaths.
In videos circulated on social platforms, some prisoners demanded transfer.
In October, President Bernardo Arévaloaccepted the resignations of three top security officials, including Villeda’s predecessor, after authorities admitted that 20 gang members had escaped over a period of days.
“The link between the prison system and the criminality outside has to be cut,” Arévalo said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “That’s why all this effort to regain control of the prison system is very important.”
Earlier in 2025, a riot in a prison in southern Ecuador killed at least 31 inmates,
In a statement released on Sunday, November 9, 2025, Ecuador’s SNAI prison authority said 27 of those found dead at the Machala prison in El Oro province had been hanged. A further four died amid an armed riot that also left 33 inmates and one police officer injured.
The violence, during which residents reported hearing gunfire, explosions, and cries for help, came less than two months after 14 inmates died at the same facility in what authorities described as a dispute between gangs.
Authorities said they were still working to “fully clarify the facts”, and forensic medical personnel were on site to verify information. The conditions of the injured were not immediately clear.
The deadly day at Machala’s prison, which began at about 3:00 am, marks the latest spasm of prison unrest in the South American country.
