Clashes between security forces and gang members in Guatemala’s capital on Sunday (January 18, 2026) killed seven officers, authorities said, shortly after police in the country’s southwest regained control of one of three maximum security prisons where inmates rioted and took hostages the night before.

The attacks on police in and around Guatemala City came after hundreds of anti-riot police stormed Renovacion prison in Escuintla, about 76 km southwest of the capital, to free nine guards who had been taken hostage there.

Jailed gang leaders often order members outside the prison walls to carry out retaliatory attacks.

Gunshots rang out as riot squads swept into the facility that houses gang leaders. About 15 minutes later, an Associated Press journalist saw the freed guards being escorted from the prison. They appeared to be unharmed. No injuries or deaths were immediately reported.

But over three dozen guards were still being held Sunday (January 18, 2026) at two other prisons, authorities said, where inmates took control the night before in a coordinated uprising to protest prison administrators’ decision to strip privileges from some incarcerated gang leaders. The inmates took 46 guards hostage across the three prisons.

As security forces tried to assert control, apparent retaliatory attacks took place outside the prison walls. Armed gangs killed seven national police officers in assaults across Guatemala City, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda said. The clashes wounded another 10 officers, he added, and killed one gang member.

He said that police so far have arrested seven gang members, confiscated two rifles and seized two vehicles, praising the police response as “the result of not negotiating with criminals”.

“The state will not kneel before these criminals,” he said, portraying the attacks on police officers and coordinated prison riots as a response to the government’s intensifying crackdown on organised crime.

With tensions high, the Ministry of Education said it would suspend classes across the Central American country for Monday “to prioritise the safety” of students and teachers.

The police reinforced guards at several prisons and increased joint patrols with the military.

Clashes in Guatemala’s predominantly Indigenous town of Nahuala have left 13 people dead, the mayor told AFP on Sunday (December 14, 2025), blaming the army in part for the incident.

Tensions have flared in recent days in the area — about 150 kilometres (93 miles) west of the capital, Guatemala City — prompting President Bernardo Arevalo on Sunday to declare a special state of emergency.

Nahuala and the neighbouring Maya community of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan have been embroiled in a century-long border dispute, which has left several dead in recent years.

Arevalo claims that organised crime groups are stoking violence in the region in a bid to prompt the Army’s withdrawal.

“Thirteen people were brutally killed in an ambush carried out by the Guatemalan army and people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan,” Nahuala mayor Manuel Garchaj told AFP by phone.

Mr. Guarchaj said the people killed were between 14 and 70 years old and were attacked while working at a local quarry.

“We’re not making anything up here. I’m only speaking the truth,” Mr. Guarchaj said in the phone call, during which he read the names and ages of the victims.

Two days of mourning have been declared in Nahuala, where burials were already underway Sunday.

Earlier, Arevalo announced at a press conference that he was declaring a 15-day “state of prevention” in the Solola department — where the two communities are located.

The order allows the restriction of certain rights in the area, such as the freedom of assembly and demonstration.

“We are at a critical moment for the Solola department and for security in the nation,” Arevalo said.

The “criminal groups” have a clear objective, “to take control of the territory so they can operate freely and continue extorting and carrying out illegal activities,” he said.

He accused the unspecified organized crime groups of “maliciously taking advantage of a community conflict.”

Arevalo said that earlier in the week, criminal groups attacked a military outpost for more than 10 hours with high-caliber weapons, injuring seven.

“In this case there was no clash between the communities, it was an intentional attack on the military outpost,” he said.

The “state of prevention” was intended to dismantle the criminal groups, he said.

In a separate confrontation on Thursday, four soldiers were wounded in an exchange of gunfire between the two communities, whose border dispute includes an area of forest and water reserves.

Authorities have declared a state of siege before in the persistent conflict, despite efforts to promote dialogue.

In December 2021, 13 people were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes recorded, including three children and a police officer.