Honduras copies El Salvador’s playbook in anti-gang crackdown

By MARLON GONZÁLEZ
Associated Press

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Observers say that a crackdown in Honduras on gangs in the nation’s prisons is eerily similar to one carried out last year in neighboring El Salvador by President Nayib Bukele. Like authorities in El Salvador, police in Honduras who launched a prison sweep Monday have distributed dramatic videos of tattooed inmates being frog-marched around. Rights groups cited evident abuses as prisoners were forced to sit spread-legged, half-naked and nestled against one another in open prison yards. And as they did in El Salvador, officials are angrily brushing off criticism about right abuses, saying the street gangs abused civilians more.