Overview
- Inmates staged synchronized uprisings in three prisons, taking more than 40 staff hostage with reported counts of nine at Renovación I, 28 at Fraijanes II, and eight guards plus a psychologist at Preventivo.
- Security forces surrounded and stormed facilities in the Guatemala City region, Escuintla and Quetzaltenango, with authorities later saying control was reestablished.
- Officials initially reported no casualties inside the prisons, then authorities cited multiple police officers killed in suspected retaliatory attacks in the capital area, with several arrests reported.
- President Bernardo Arévalo’s decree launches 30 days of police and military operations, the police chief urged residents to stay home, and Monday’s classes were canceled nationwide.
- The Interior Ministry linked the unrest to a crackdown that stripped jailed gang leaders of privileges and seized phones, weapons and drugs, as the country confronts entrenched influence of Barrio 18 and MS-13 and fallout from an October mass escape.