Dozens dead in Mexico prison violence

[webfact]

Dozens dead in Mexico prison violence




MONTERREY: -- At least fifty two people have died in a riot and fire at a prison in Mexico.

A dispute between rival drug gangs is said to have triggered the tragedy in the northeastern city of Monterrey.

Fighting broke out overnight in two areas of the Topo Chico prison between a faction of the brutal Zetas gang and another group, Nuevo Leon state Governor Jaime Rodriguez said.

He told reporters that prisoners had started several fires during clashes and that all those killed were detainees. Twelve people were injured.

Reports also say that some inmates were angry at authorities re-establishing their control of the jail and that the violence was linked to an escape attempt.

Anxious relatives gathered outside for news of their loved ones after this, the latest in a series of deadly riots in recent years to rock Mexico’s overpopulated prisons, which often house inmates in drug cartels.

“I want to know that my daughter is okay. She is in the infirmary. There are children in there,” said one woman outside the prison as other relatives shouted and cursed.

It comes just days ahead of a planned visit by Pope Francis to another jail in Mexico’s far north.

He is set to begin his first trip to Mexico as pontiff on Friday and next week, he will go to a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, which was once one of the most violent cities in the world.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-02-12

[webfact]

Riot at prison in northern Mexico leaves 49 inmates dead
By PORFIRIO IBARRA and MARK STEVENSON

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — A brawl between rival drug gangs at an overcrowded penitentiary in northern Mexico turned into a riot Thursday, leaving 49 inmates dead and 12 injured in the country's deadliest prison melee in years.

No escapes were reported in the clash at the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, said Nuevo Leo state Gov. Jaime Rodriguez. The riot took place on the eve of Pope Francis' arrival in Mexico, a visit that is scheduled to include a trip next week to another prison in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Rodriguez said in the morning that 52 had died, but he lowered that by three in the late afternoon. The reason for the changed death toll was not clear.

At a news conference the governor read a list of 40 names of confirmed victims, saying five of the remaining bodies had been charred by fire and four were yet to be positively identified. One of the injured was in grave condition.

The fighting began around midnight with prisoners setting fire to a storage area, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky. Rescue workers were seen carrying injured inmates — some with burns — from the facility.

Rodriguez said the clash was between two factions led by a member of the infamous Zetas drug cartel, Juan Pedro Zaldivar Farias, also known as "Z-27," and Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu, who has been identified by Mexican media as a Gulf cartel figure.

A turf war between the gangs bloodied Nuevo Leon state and neighboring Tamaulipas between 2010 and 2012. The Zetas once nearly controlled the area around Monterrey.

Zaldivar Farias was a suspect in the 2010 killing of American David Hartley on Falcon Lake, which makes up part of the border between Mexico and Texas. Hartley was reportedly gunned down while touring the reservoir with his wife on jet skis.

A crowd of people bundled against the cold gathered at the prison gates, demanding to be let in to learn the fate of their relatives. Some threw rocks, kicked and shook the gates as riot police with plastic shields kept the crowd out.

Prison officials later began letting people enter in small numbers.

"My brother is OK," said Jose Eduardo Gonzalez, one of those allowed inside. "They only let me see him for a few minutes, just to see that he's alive, and then they took me out because they said they had to give the rest a chance to go in."

Authorities were reinforcing security at other prisons and had transferred some inmates out of Topo Chico, Rodriguez told Milenio. After initially saying the fighting didn't involve gunfire, but he later reported that at least one of the victims was shot to death.

The deadliest prison riot in recent memory also occurred in Nuevo Leon, in February 2012, when Zetas gangsters killed 44 Gulf cartel members at the overcrowded Apodaca federal lockup.

A month earlier, 31 died in a Tamaulipas prison where inmates set upon each other with makeshift knives, clubs and stones.

According to a 2014 report by the National Human Rights Commission, Topo Chico was designed to house 3,635 prisoners but actually held about 4,585 that year. Inmates there used violence as a way of exerting control in the prison, it added.

Another report by the commission in 2013 highlighted violence and inmate control in many of Mexico's prisons, symptoms of corruption and lack of resources.

The report, based on visits and interviews at 101 of the most populated facilities, found that 65 of them were run by inmates, not authorities.

Leslie Solis, a security and justice researcher at the public-policy think tank Mexico Evalua, said the commission's most recent rating of Topo Chico indicated that "we had it coming" and "all the conditions were in place for this" — too few guards, poor training and the entry of illicit objects and substances.

Constitutional reforms in 2008 and 2011 tried to reorient Mexico's prison system toward respect for human rights and preparing convicts to reintegrate into society, but in most of the country that has not occurred, Solis added. Some parts are so under the thumb of organized crime that authorities do not have the resources to confront it.

Potential solutions include more judicious use of prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, and locking up fewer people who are still waiting for Mexico's plodding judicial system to handle their cases. At Topo Chico, for example, 26 percent of prisoners were still awaiting a sentence.

"This clash ... has to serve as an alarm or a call to authorities to take responsibility and not permit this to happen again," Solis said.
___

Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman in contributed from Mexico City.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-12

[shunter]

Rats destroy rats, splendid process with positive results in the fact that the are now 52 less oxygen thieves in Mexican prisons.

[NeverSure]

So, we're sure that every single one of them did something he should be killed for. We really like mob justice without the rule of law.

That's really cool.

[Colabamumbai]

Prisons are not nice places, I have been in a few.

[MickRobbo]

The world over, justification for violence seems reasonable, when in fact it's anything but. However get a bunch like these suspects/convicts together you've got a fine melting pot of those that disobey the law. Their prison officers have a job to do and appears for any number of reasons they are not or cannot? Very murky world especially there, gangs run any number of aspects of their society including police, judiciary, prisons and the list continues. Just over the boarder from the marvellous US of A who throw limited cash at the issue as they benefit, weapons go one way for exchange of drugs in return

[snoop1130]

49 detainees dead after Mexico Topo Chico prison riot
Euronews

MEXICO -- Angry relatives gathered outside Mexico’s Topo Chico prison, notorious for its violence, after 49 detainees died during a deadly riot inside the facility on Thursday (February 11).

The governor read the names of 40 confirmed victims. She told reporters five other bodies had been charred by fire.

Officials posted the names of the dead outside the prison gates as they were identified, while some family members desperate for news called out the names of their loved ones.

“Please help us!,” screamed one woman, her voice cracking with emotion. “The governor, with all due respect, come out and face us. Give us the names! Please, the names. That’s it! Where is she?”

The Topo Chico incident is the latest in a series of deadly prison riots in recent years, many sparked by brawls between rival crime gangs.
Pope Francis in Mexico

The Topo Chico riot comes just days ahead of a planned visit by the pope to another jail in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, one of the world’s most violent cities.

Source: http://www.euronews.com/2016/02/12/49-detainees-dead-after-mexico-topo-chico-prison-riot/

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-02-12

[neverdie]

Prisons are not nice places, I have been in a few.

did you play mommys and daddies in there?

Edited February 12, 2016 by neverdie

[Colabamumbai]

Prisons are not nice places, I have been in a few.

did you play mommys and daddies in there?

No I was friends with the lifers and chairman of the Inmate committee no one bothered me.

Next to lifers drug smugglers get the most respect.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Colabamumbai

[Geoffggi]

This should be labelled "Good News " as we hear so little of it, it really is a win-win situation some baddies kill other baddies lets hope it spreads...

[rooster59]

Questions raised about what happened in Mexican prison brawl

MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press
PORFIRIO IBARRA, Associated Press


MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Prosecutors charged three state officers with homicide after a bloody prison brawl that ended with 49 dead, raising questions about what happened during the melee inside Mexico's Topo Chico lockup that saw inmates fight with hammers, cudgels and makeshift knives.

Nuevo Leon state prosecutor Roberto Flores did not say Friday night if the officers with the state safety department, which supplies the prison's guards, were accused of killing inmates. But authorities have said a guard fired a bullet found in one dead inmate.

Flores also said that four of the nine bodies still unidentified could not be named because the prison had no record of them at the facility. The other five bodies were badly burned and were awaiting DNA testing.

"It is a pretty irregular situation," he said of the violence in the prison in Monterrey, which is Mexico's northern industrial hub.

Authorities said the hours-long fight that raged into Thursday morning was a battle between rival drug gang factions that underlined the power that cartels wield inside many of the country's prisons.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Jaime Rodriguez said 60 hammers, 86 knives and 120 shivs were used in the bloodbath in which 49 inmates were hacked, beaten or burned to death and a dozen were injured.

At least 40 of the victims "died from wounds from stabbing and cutting weapons, blows from hammers and clubs," Rodriguez said at a news conference

"What we have to see as a reality in the entire penitentiary system is that there is self-rule" by the inmates, Rodriguez said. "All this corruption inside the prison creates the conditions we have today."

He acknowledged that prisoners effectively lord over the facility and that there were not enough guards watching them. "Nobody wants to be a guard," he said, because of the meager pay.

Before flying from Cuba to Mexico on Friday, Pope Francis sent a message to Monterrey's archbishop expressing profound sorrow for the victims. He also asked that his condolences be conveyed to the victims' families and wished a speedy recovery for those injured in the melee.

About half the inmates at Topo Chico have been sentenced for minor offenses or are suspects still awaiting trial. Nevertheless they are housed in the prison's overcrowded general population alongside many of the country's most hardened killers.

One of them was Raymundo Gonzalez Hernandez, a 23-year-old who is accused of kidnapping but whose trial is still pending. He was not among those listed as wounded during the riot, but his cousin said he was covered by bruises and welts when she was allowed inside to see him.

"Both his eyes were practically closed from all the hits they gave him," Cynthia Hernandez said.

"He couldn't even speak, he just went like this," she added, moving her head from side to side.

No escapes were reported in the clash, which took place on the eve of Francis' arrival in Mexico, a visit that is scheduled to include a trip next week to another prison in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Flores confirmed the clash was between two gangs led by two members of the infamous Zetas drug cartel, Juan Pedro Zaldivar Farias, also known as "Z-27," and Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu.

Rodriguez blamed the violence on "the old, outdated, obsolete system" under which Mexican prisons are run and suggested after having visited the United States that his country may have to move to U.S.-style, privately operated prisons.

"We have to think about efforts with private initiative," he said. "We have not been doing rehabilitation work."

He also criticized judicial reforms that have given inmates greater ability to appeal transfer orders that could send them farther from their hometowns. Zaldivar had successfully fought to be moved to Topo Chico, while Hernandez won an appeal against transferring him elsewhere.

"Basically this is creating the conflicts in the prisons," Rodriguez said.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-13

[sandgroper2]

So, we're sure that every single one of them did something he should be killed for. We really like mob justice without the rule of law.

That's really cool.

He is just showing his stupidity.But we should pity him, just remember, there, but for the grace of god go I.

[Pinot]

So, we're sure that every single one of them did something he should be killed for. We really like mob justice without the rule of law.

That's really cool.

A typically horrible thing to write. You're a real humanitarian.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Pinot