In central Honduras, more than 300 inmates burned or suffocated to death in a prison. One can only imagine the cries of those trapped in their cells, while no one could find a key to let them escape the flames. We can only try to comprehend the agony of the prisoners' parents, children, relatives or friends as they saw the images on television, wondering whether their loved ones survived or, if they died, how much they suffered in their final moments.
The horrific tragedy at Honduras, a small impoverished country in Central America, brings to the forefront an issue that has long been ignored: Abysmal prison conditions.
Fire one of the worst incidents of its kind in Latin America
Across the world, in rich and poor countries alike, many people who are sentenced to prison suffer unspeakable conditions. Even if we assume that those incarcerated have gone through a fair trial, nothing justifies condemning individuals to live below the minimum level of human decency.
Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said the growing presence of organized crime in Honduras has "logically" fed the country's prison population.
"We have to come up with an immediate response because we can't allow our country, Honduras, which has had three incidents of this kind, to go down that road," he said Wednesday in a television interview.
Honduras is not alone. Prison conditions have worsened across the region as inmate populations swell, in part because of crime sweeps aimed at tackling the growing presence of international drug traffickers and homegrown street gangs.
In Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels in 2006, thousands of drug suspects have been housed in poorly run state prisons because the federal installations lack space.
By 2010, the ranks of federal prisoners in Mexico had quadrupled in four years to more than 12,000, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said at the time.
The horrific tragedy at Honduras, a small impoverished country in Central America, brings to the forefront an issue that has long been ignored: Abysmal prison conditions.
Fire one of the worst incidents of its kind in Latin America
Across the world, in rich and poor countries alike, many people who are sentenced to prison suffer unspeakable conditions. Even if we assume that those incarcerated have gone through a fair trial, nothing justifies condemning individuals to live below the minimum level of human decency.
Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said the growing presence of organized crime in Honduras has "logically" fed the country's prison population.
"We have to come up with an immediate response because we can't allow our country, Honduras, which has had three incidents of this kind, to go down that road," he said Wednesday in a television interview.
Honduras is not alone. Prison conditions have worsened across the region as inmate populations swell, in part because of crime sweeps aimed at tackling the growing presence of international drug traffickers and homegrown street gangs.
In Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels in 2006, thousands of drug suspects have been housed in poorly run state prisons because the federal installations lack space.
By 2010, the ranks of federal prisoners in Mexico had quadrupled in four years to more than 12,000, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said at the time.
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