TEGUCIGALPA: President Xiomara Castro declared a curfew Sunday in a region of Honduras where suspected hitmen hired by drug traffickers shot and killed 11 people in a billiard hall.
The mass shooting took place in Choloma, a town near San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in this country plagued by poverty, gang violence and drug trafficking, all of which are fueling a desperate exodus north toward Mexico and ultimately the United States.
Witnesses posted video online of bloodied bodies at the pool hall, where people were celebrating a birthday party. Gunmen entered and opened fire, the witnesses said.
Ten men and a woman were killed, said Miguel Martinez, a spokesman for the National Police.
Castro said on Twitter the curfew in Choloma and San Pedro Sula will be in effect starting Sunday from 9 pm starting to 4 am.
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Castro said she was acting after “the brutal and ruthless terrorist attack by hired killers trained and directed by drug lords” in a troubled area called the Sula Valley.
The attack came a week after a vicious battle between rival gangs left at least 46 women dead in a prison near the capital Tegucigalpa.
That outburst of violence erupted when members of the Barrio 18 gang burst into an area housing the rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) group, shot at them, and set the place on fire, according to authorities and witnesses.
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