Honduras Reveals Plans to Build Island Prison Colony

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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.1
  • 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.2
  • 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 2019.3
  • 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.4
  • 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.5
  • 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-13.6

Sources: 1Daily Caller, 2EL PAÍS English, 3Al Jazeera, 4The Washington Times, 5Time, and 6Daily Mail.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by TeleSUR English. 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.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Washington Post. 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.