Many prison officials and other employees are held hostages by prisoners, gang members who have stood in two of her prisons Guatemalasthe government announced.

Last Saturday, police intervened to regain control in various prisons in the country, after many days of riots in which a penitentiary was killed.

Authorities attribute these attitudes to recent transfer to the highest security executives prison of Bario 18 and Mara Salvatroutsa.

“The Ministry of Justice handles the hostage situation and we are optimistic that it will solve the problem, as has been the case in previous times,” President Bernardo Areno told reporters.

The Minister of the Interior Francisco Jimenes He clarified that stops have occurred in the prison of Fraida, in a community near the capital, and in Bokeron, 65 kilometers east of the city of Guatemala. “These are desperate gangster efforts to draw attention and put pressure on the state to return their leaders” who were transferred to the highest security prison Renovasion 1, the minister added.

“Our priority is to protect the lives of hostages and restore order, without retreating against criminals,” he continued. Jimenes did not say how many are hostage, only that besides the prisoners, there are also employees in a company that provides the prisoners’ meals.

The minister assured that the five leaders of the two gangs would remain in Renovasion 1 prison, where they were transferred on July 31 and are being kept in isolation, without access to mobile phones.

Bario 18 and Mara Salvatroutsa, which have been declared “terrorist organizations” by the US, are claiming areas of Guatemala where traders, carriers and ordinary citizens are blackmailed. Those who refuse to pay are murdered. Gangs also act in Honduras. In El Salvador, President Nagib Bouquel has imprisoned by 2022 thousands of people who are considered members of the gangs, although human rights organizations have spoken of arbitrary imprisonment.