Guatemala’s interior minister accused gangs of killing seven police on Sunday in retaliation for the government’s refusal to transfer gang leaders to a lower-security prison.
The killings occurred a day after gang-affiliated inmates took 46 people hostage in three prisons across the country. Police regained control of one of the prisons on Sunday.
“I am deeply saddened by the deaths of seven National Civil Police officers who were cowardly attacked by these terrorists in response to the actions the Guatemalan state is taking against them,” Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda told a press conference.
Ten other police officers were wounded in the retaliatory attacks, and one suspected gang member was killed, he said.
At dawn on Sunday, police supported by the army entered the Renovacion I maximum-security prison in Escuintla, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of Guatemala City, using armored vehicles and tear gas.
After 15 minutes, they managed to regain control of the prison and free guards being held hostage, an AFP photographer witnessed.
“It was an operation that unfolded without casualties on either side, and we managed to rescue the nine hostages that these terrorists had in their power,” Villeda said.
Earlier, the prison posted on X that the leader of the Mara 18 gang, alias ‘Lobo,’ or wolf, has been “neutralized” in the operation.
The Barrio 18 gang, also known as Mara 18, and the rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang are blamed for much of the drug trafficking and criminal violence that plagues the Central American country. Washington has declared both groups to be terrorist organizations.
Since Saturday morning, the inmates had been holding 45 guards and a psychiatrist hostage to protest the transfer of gang leaders to a maximum-security prison.
The gang members are still holding hostages at the two other prisons: 28 at Fraijanes II located east of the Guatemalan capital, and nine at the Preventivo prison on the outskirts of city.
“I am not willing to negotiate, nor to restore their privileges, nor to grant any kind of concession to stop this situation from continuing,” Villeda said.
Since mid-2025, gang members have staged uprisings at prisons to demand their leaders be held in less-restricted conditions.
In October, Guatemalan authorities reported that 20 leaders of the Barrio 18 gang had escaped from a prison. Only six have been recaptured, while another was shot and killed.
Guatemala ended last year with a homicide rate of 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double the global average.
