Wild animals and a call center for extortion: this was ‘El Infiernito’, the Guatemalan prison controlled by gangs

The official assured that “There is no longer a single inmate in the prison ‘El Infiernito’. Once again this prison belongs to the country. We are going to restructure it so that it is now a maximum security prison”.

(We recommend: Noboa-Abad Case: the cracks in the relations between presidents and vice presidents)

“It will be repopulated. Of course, according to their status as prisoners. They are prisons, NOT vacations,” he added in reference to the comforts that the leaders of that mafia had.

According to official images, The inmates had air conditioning, televisions and refrigerators at the Canada Maximum Security Center – nicknamed “El Infiernito” – in the department of Escuintla, 70 km south of the capital.

In the transfer operation that included 400 police officers, agents from the Nature Protection Division (Diprona) of the police also participated, upon finding wild animals.

Among the rescued animals are two crocodiles, two raccoons, two gray foxes, a hawk and another bird of prey.

“We have asked Diprona to be responsible for protecting these animals and giving them a place other than, obviously, the prison and for them to be in conditions appropriate to their nature,” said Minister Jiménez.
​
​(Continue reading: ‘What is it like to be re-elected?’: the friendly meeting between Javier Milei and Nayib Bukele in El Salvador)

Meanwhile, the National Council of Protected Areas (Conap) said in a note that “the rescued wild animals will be evaluated by veterinarians to know their health status and give them treatment if they need it.”

Conap regretted that one of the raccoons died and the causes are yet to be established.

They will also determine if they are suitable to be released into their natural habitat and, if they have already lost the ability to find their own food due to domestication, they will be sent to a rescue center since they could not survive on their own.
​
​(Also: Renowned ‘youtuber’ was found dead after content related to pedophilia was found on him)

The Vice Minister of Security, Claudia Palencia, agreed with Jiménez by blaming “previous governments” for “giving control of the prisons to criminals.”

For Palencia, who toured the prison with journalists after regaining control, the abandonment for more than three decades allowed “the inmates to have a chance to be comfortable in this prison center.”

“The penitentiary system is the only one that has not been reengineered, neither in infrastructure, nor in technology, nor in dignity for the guards, nor in a reform,” he lamented.

The operation was carried out three days after President Bernardo Arévalo recognized that areas of the capital live as “prisoners” of the gangs, reacting to a call from the UN to stop the recruitment of minors by these gangs.

(You can read: El Salvador: why could President Nayib Bukele’s ‘honeymoon’ end in his new term?)

The Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs dispute control of territories to demand extortion payments from transporters and merchants, among others. Those who refuse to pay are killed, according to the authorities.

The authorities themselves recognize that most extortion phone calls come from prisons.

Criminal violence left 4,361 homicides in Guatemala in 2023a rate of 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, half attributed to drug trafficking and gangs.