Honduran President Xiomara Castro decreed on Sunday a curfew in a northern region of the country following the violent death of 11 people that she attributed to the actions of hired killers paid by local drug traffickers.
As of this Sunday there is “a special curfew for Choloma, from 9 pm (03H00 GMT) to 4 am (10H00 GMT),” Castro reported on his Twitter account.
The decision was taken after 11 people were gunned down on Saturday night in a pool hall in the town of Choloma, neighboring San Pedro Sula, the country’s second city, located 180 km north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
In San Pedro Sula and Choloma “I have taken measures to provide security in the face of the brutal and merciless terrorist attack by hired thugs trained and directed by the drug lords who operate with impunity in the drug corridor, Valle de Sula,” the governor added.
There are “11 [dead] in this criminal action” that took place in Choloma, National Police spokesman Miguel Martínez said on Sunday.
The police official said the victims are “ten men and one woman”.
Witnesses published videos of the bloodied bodies lying on the floor of a pool hall, where they said that several people were sharing the birthday of one of the victims.
According to these versions, unknown assailants arrived with automatic weapons to attack them without giving them time to escape. At least ten people died at the scene and another in a hospital, where three wounded had been admitted.
The attack occurred five days after the massacre of 48 inmates in a women’s prison near the capital.
According to authorities, inmates from the Barrio 18 gang broke out of their module and burst into the one where rivals from the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) were being held to attack them with gunfire and set fire to the penitentiary.
