Rival ‘Mara’ gang members battle over drug turf in Honduras; 9 killed in gunfire overnight

‘Mara’ gangs battle in Honduran capital; 9 killed

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A shootout between rival street gangs battling for control of the drug trade killed nine people in Honduras overnight, an official said Sunday.

Gang members wearing police uniforms and ski masks burst into a house in a crime-plagued area on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa and began shooting, Deputy Security Minister Armando Calidonio said. People inside returned fire, and seven men and two women were killed.

The shooters and victims were all believed to be associated with two notorious gangs: the Mara Salvatrucha and the rival Mara 18, Calidonio said.

This Central American nation of 8 million is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and has been rocked by brutal drug violence for more than a decade.

An estimated 20,590 people died violently here in the last five years, according to the Madrid-based nonprofit Observers of Violence.

(This version CORRECTS the location of the gunbattle to Tegucigalpa.)