Posted on 08/15/2005 7:22:25 PM PDT by vrwc0915
GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) - Clashes between rival gangs in Guatemalan jails left at least 25 inmates dead and more than 50 wounded, police said.
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Deaths were reported in clashes between members of Mara Salvatrucha and those of Mara-18, a rival gang at the Escuintla and Granja Penal Pavon jails outside Guatemala City.
At least 13 gang members were said to have died in the Escuintla jail, 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of the capital.
Members of the Mara Salvatrucha "wanted to eliminate physically members of Mara-18," according to Daniel Guerrero, police chief in Escuintla.
In another gang rumble, eight members of Los Cholos were killed by gunshots to the head in Pavon prison, in eastern Guatemala, according to the same source.
In Canada prison, near Escuintla, two inmates were killed by the explosion of a fragmentation grenade.
Police intervened to take control of Mazatenango prison, 163 kilometers (100 miles) south of the capital, where a member of the Mara Salvatrucha and one of the Mara-18 were killed.
Battles between the principal gangs of Central America, Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18, have become especially worrisome in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Those three countries are the most harmed by these gangs and police repression has not controlled the problem.
The gangs were born in the 1980s in US Latin neighborhoods. The gangs left Los Angeles and went international when some of their members lost their US residency and returned to their homelands.
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