The mission met yesterday with the public and the Roman Catholic Church in order to discuss the current situation of the penitentiary system of Honduras.

On March 26th, representatives of the Government of Honduras spoke before the IACHR of the serious situation of prisons in the country, admitting they suffer from infrastructure problems, overpopulation and a number of prisoners in pre-trial detention, exceeding those convicted.

The visit was prompted particularly by the Honduras prison fire on February 14th of this year, when some 361 persons died, including a woman visiting her husband at the penal farm of Comayagua, some 80 kilometers to the North of Tegucigalpa. According to a team of experts from the United States, the cause of that fire was “accidental”.

That incident, as well as the March 29th events, where at least 13 convicts died in the prison of San Pedro Sula during a brief fire and a gunfight, focused international attention on Honduras.