Weekly Report - 16 February 2012 (WR-12-07)

A total of 355 prisoners died in Honduras this week in one of the worst prison fires on record. There is nothing like a disaster of this sort to attract international media attention and to throw the spotlight, as ever, onto poor prison conditions and overcrowding. But, the timing of the disaster was also very bad for the government of President Porfirio Lobo. It comes fast on the heels of annual figures showing Honduras to have the world’s worst homicide rate; mounting pressure on the government to take action against widespread police corruption; and deeper questions about a damaged democracy and even failed state.

The prison fire in Comayagua, outside Tegucigalpa, broke out late on 14 February. The blaze was not brought under control for several hours. The (now suspended) prisons director, Danilo Orellana, said it was caused by a prisoner setting fire to a mattress or a short circuit in the electrical system. This is the third serious prison fire in the last decade in Honduras, but the death toll was much higher: 107 prisoners died in a prison fire in the second city of San Pedro Sula in May 2004 and 69 people in April 2003 near the Caribbean town of La Ceiba.

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