Overview
- Security forces retook the Renovación I, Fraijanes II and Preventivo prisons, freeing all 46 hostages with no fatalities reported in the operations.
- Officials say the coordinated unrest was triggered by raids and the removal of privileges for jailed leaders of Barrio 18 and MS-13, which are designated terrorist groups.
- After the prisons were secured, suspected gang gunmen carried out revenge attacks in Greater Guatemala City, killing at least seven police officers and wounding others, with one suspect killed and several arrests reported.
- President Bernardo Arévalo’s emergency order curtails assembly rights and allows arrests and interrogations without a judge’s authorization, and it still awaits approval from the opposition-led Congress.
- Police and military are conducting joint operations, schools were closed on Monday, and investigators are examining broader criminal and political networks against the backdrop of a major gang escape last October.