Officials blasted after Honduras prison blaze
COMAYAGUA, Honduras, — Survivors of a Honduran jailhouse fire that killed more than 350 inmates accused guards of leaving prisoners to die trapped inside their cells and even firing on others when they tried to escape.
As torched bodies were pulled out of the prison complex on Thursday, relatives of victims, survivors and experts said massive overcrowding, guards’ negligence and a failed justice system were to blame for the disaster, which killed many inmates who had not even been convicted.
Unable to escape the inferno that tore through Comayagua National Penitentiary on Tuesday night, terrified prisoners died screaming to be let out of their cells.
Rosendo Sanchez, a convicted murderer serving a 10-year sentence, awoke as the blaze started. He escaped his building and says he saw guards firing at other inmates trying to escape.
“It was hell here, seeing your friends, people you have known well burn alive,” he said, noting that the fire brigade did not come into the prison for more than half an hour.
The country’s director of police intelligence, Elder Madrid, said the fire broke out in block six during a fight over a mattress between two inmates, one of whom set it on fire. All but four of more than 100 prisoners in the block died, he said.
But some victims’ relatives said the government had been grossly negligent or had even planned the blaze.
Some of the 850 or so inmates of the overcrowded jail managed to force their way to safety through the tin roofs of the prison, a dark maze-like structure with narrow open-air hallways lined with white and blue brick walls.
But 359 of the prisoners never found their way out, according to the attorney general’s office.
Claudio Saenz, a social worker who visits the jail, said the dead included people who were not even given a proper trial.
“Many were not convicted and have been here two or three years and they were not able to be released because the Honduran justice system is really slow,” he said.
Prison chaplain Reynaldo Moncada said that probably only around half of the inmates had been sentenced by a court.
Condemnation of the prison authorities spread as far as the local fire brigade chief, who said they had stopped his crews from entering the burning prison for half an hour.
“These people in the prisons have their protocols, and while these are going on, they don’t let anybody in,” Jaime Omar Silva told the El Tiempo newspaper.
This excellent problem, published in the British Bridge Magazine many years ago, was comprised by Paul Lukacs, Israeli expert.
West should begin by ruffing the queen- of- diamonds lead in dummy ( it would be wrong to discard a spade or a heart). He then draws both missing trumps, ending in dummy, and leads the deuce of spades.
If South follows suit with the five or six or shows out of spades, West plays his seven and is sure to score the rest of the tricks regardless of which suit North returns after winning the seven of spades.
If South produces the eight, nine or 10 of spades on the deuce lead from dummy, West wins with the king, returns to dummy with a trump and leads the three of spades toward his hand, planning to play the jack if South follows low.
By adopting this line of play, declarer makes the contract in each of the following six cases:
1. If South has no higher than the six.
spade
2. If South errs and plays the five or six of spades on the first round of the suit when he holds the eight, nine or 10.
3. If South has the queen of spades, in which case the number of spades he was dealt makes no difference at all.
4. If North has either the singleton or doubleton queen of spades.
5. If the six spades held by North-south are divided 3-3.
6. If t he potential heart finesse — taken as a last resort after the spades fail to divide f avorably — wins because South was dealt the queen.
Only if all six chances go wrong would declarer fail to make the slam on the recommended line of play. If they all did go sour, declarer could easily be forgiven if he decided to give up the game for a while. Steve Becker; © 2012 King Features Syndicate Inc.