Other alternatives will be explored in the event of a possible failure of the prison in the Swan Islands

This is what the authorities of the National Penitentiary Institute say about whether or not the project to build a prison in Islas del Cisne will be declared a failure.

The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran Armed Forces, Roosevelt Hernández , said that they will seek to explore other options to build a new prison in the country given the possible failure of the project in the Swan Islands, in the Honduran Caribbean.

“We are doing some analysis to see what options we have and to be able to contribute to the fight against drug trafficking,” Hernandez said on Channel 5’s TN5 Estelar newscast on Monday, September 30.

One of the alternatives could be the construction of an Emergency Detention Center (CRE) to isolate people who commit illegal acts from the rest of Honduran society, according to Hernández.

However, the prison in Islas del Cisne, like the CRE , is part of the projects announced by the National Defense and Security Council as part of a plan to combat crime.

The prison in Islas del Cisne would have the capacity to house 2,000 prisoners considered highly dangerous, while the CRE could house 20,000 in the unpopulated area between the departments of Olancho and Gracias a Dios.

INP decision

Roosevelt Hernández emphasized that the authorities of the National Penitentiary Institute (INP) are the ones who must decide whether or not to continue with the bidding process for the construction of the prison in Islas del Cisne.

Ramiro Muñoz , president of the INP Intervention Commission, assured that the prison project remains in place until a different order is received from the government.

Various Honduran sectors are pushing for the prison in the Caribbean not to be built, as they warn of damage to the ecosystem .

Project already licensed

Last July, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment gave the green light to the first phase of the environmental license , which included biological studies, marine-coastal studies and the mitigation measures necessary to move forward with the project.

Retired commissioner and former director of prisons, Danilo Orellana, questioned the speed with which the environmental license was granted, given that other sectors, such as the opening of gas stations, can take up to ten years to receive it.

“The official who authorized the environmental license for this prison is going to have problems, even though this project was not carried out, but he did something against the law,” he said on the HRN radio news program Diario Matutino.

According to Orellana, the prison project in Islas del Cisne has been a failure from the start and banking institutions are avoiding providing guarantees for fear of losing money if the project is halted.

“I think that, deep down, this is a distraction for someone who is planning something bigger and they knew that this was not going to work because there is no possibility of support,” he added.

Authorities from the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) reported that the cost of building the prison in Islas del Cisne, which will house approximately two thousand highly dangerous inmates, amounts to approximately 80 million dollars , equivalent to more than 1.9 billion lempiras.