20 members of gang designated by U.S. as foreign terrorist organization escape prison in Guatemala

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The U.S. embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Center for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha (better known as MS-13) are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Barrio 18 is one of the largest gangs in the Northern Hemisphere, the U.S. State Department said in a news release last month, adding that the foreign terrorist group fdesignation “further demonstrates the Trump Administration’s unwavering commitment to dismantling cartels and gangs and ensuring the safety of the American people.”

More than a dozen groups have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations since the start of President Trump’s second term.   The Trump administration has used the foreign terrorist designation to justify multiple lethal strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs, including at least three off the coast of Venezuela.