Guatemala City [Guatemala]: Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo has announced a 30-day nationwide state of emergency following a weekend surge of violence linked to coordinated prison riots and subsequent gang reprisals.
Authorities were responding to unrest in three prisons where inmates took dozens of guards and staff hostage in protest of restrictions on privileges for gang leaders, including Aldo Duppie, a powerful Barrio 18 figure.
Security forces regained control of the facilities after raids by police and military units, and Arevalo said all hostages had been freed. But shortly after the prisons were retaken, at least seven police officers were killed and around 10 more were wounded in apparent retaliatory attacks by gang members in and around Guatemala City.
"These murders were carried out with the intention of terrorising the security forces and the population so that we give up in the fight against gangs and their regime of terror. But they will fail," Arevalo said in a nationwide address, stressing the government would not yield to intimidation.
The emergency decree, which can expand the powers of security forces and limit certain civil liberties, was issued as part of efforts to curb gang violence that has long plagued the Central American nation. Arevalo also declared three days of national mourning for those killed, and Defence Minister Henry Saenz said the army would remain on the streets to support ongoing operations.
In response to the unrest, the US Embassy in Guatemala City lifted a temporary shelter-in-place order for its staff over the weekend, and schools in some areas were suspended as authorities bolstered security.
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