A nationwide state of emergency has been declared in Guatemala, lasting 30 days, following a series of coordinated gang-led assaults on three maximum-security prisons that left at least 10 police officers dead. The riots, which erupted on January 17, saw inmates seizing control of the facilities and taking prison guards hostage.
President Bernardo Arévalo announced the emergency measure on Sunday, confirming that authorities had successfully regained command of the prisons without any additional casualties. “There has not been a single casualty to regret during the operation,” he stated.
The violence originated when inmates at three prisons in and around Guatemala City launched simultaneous disturbances, taking several guards captive. Police units subsequently stormed the Renovación I facility, which houses Aldo Dupie Ochoa Mejía, alias El Lobo, the leader of the Barrio 18 gang. Ochoa Mejía is serving a combined sentence of 1,670 years.
Over two days, authorities freed 40 prison guards who had been held hostage, according to the interior ministry. Officials indicated that the riots and kidnappings were orchestrated to pressure the government into transferring gang leaders, including El Lobo, to less secure facilities and to grant them additional benefits.
Arévalo characterized the attacks as an effort to intimidate security forces and the public, aimed at undermining the government’s crackdown on organized crime and what he called their “reign of terror.” The United States designated Barrio 18 as a terrorist organization in September, describing it as one of the hemisphere’s largest gangs. Guatemala’s Congress followed with a similar designation in October under new anti-gang laws.