On Feb. 14 in Honduras, 358 inmates were killed in a massive fire in the crumbling, overcrowded prison in Comayagua. This is one in a string of prison fires in Honduras over the past eight years exposing what, at best, could be termed callous disregard from the Honduran authorities towards prisoners' human rights.
The massive fire trapped many prisoners in their cells; those unable to escape by pushing out roof panels were burned alive. Most of the dead were burned beyond recognition, and Red Cross volunteers were reduced to collecting body parts in plastic bags. The Comayagua prison, which was meant to hold 500 prisoners, had 850 prisoners crowded inside its walls. This mirrors a national trend, with the nation's prison system occupancy being over two times its stated capacity.
In 2003, in another facility, 68 prisoners were killed in a fire after a so-called riot where guards shot and stabbed inmates. In 2004, a fire claimed 100 lives when guards kept prisoners locked in their cells and shot those trying to escape the flames.
The harsh prison conditions in Honduras reflect the harsh social reality for the masses of people. Two-thirds of children have no access to clean water, proper sanitation or educational opportunity. Overall 60 percent of people live below the poverty line, while in the rural areas the rate approaches 65 percent. The majority face poverty, lack of social services, and violence in a country run by wealthy landowners who hold ever tighter to power after sponsoring a right-wing coup in 2009. Dozens of campesino activists have been killed by the military, police and private guards of landowners since 2009.
Some of these same landowners are major players in the international drug trade and collaborate openly with the U.S.-backed government. Crowded, dangerous prisons are a result of the callous, brutal system of capital accumulation deployed by the Honduran elite and their American sponsors.
The U.S. government, too, displays callous disregard towards the incarcerated. In U.S. prisons, the world's most populous, problems such as overcrowding, malnutrition and lack of proper medical care are widespread. Torturous solitary confinement cells are deployed with regularity and a militarized police dragnet heavily concentrated in the most economically exploited areas accompanies this system of mass incarceration.
On Feb. 20, the Occupy movement is calling a National Day of Action in Solidarity with Prisoners, highlighting the injustices of America’s prison system. Actions such as these are part of a growing movement against mass incarceration around the nation. Whether in the United States or Honduras, confronting social problems means confronting the social system: capitalism.
