At least 40 inmates were found strangulated to death on Monday in four jails in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus.
The clashes broke out around 11:00 am (1500 GMT) during visiting hours at the facility, located some 28 kilometers (17 miles) from state capital Manaus. The deaths came one day after 15 inmates were killed in clashes between rival prison gangs in the same city.
As reported by various international media publications, the Amazonas state government said in a statement that the victims appeared to have been killed by “asphyxiation.” It added that some of the inmates were stabbed with sharpened toothbrushes, while others had been strangled. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the fight.
The reports claimed that federal authorities had dispatched reinforcements to the state to boost security.
The same facility was the scene of a prison rebellion that lasted almost 20 hours and left 56 people dead in January 2017.
Commenting on the incident, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to regain control of the country’s prisons – along with building many more jails. But the vast majority of jails are administered at the state level. For decades they have been badly overcrowded and out of control of local authorities.
Brazil has the world’s third largest prison population, with 726,712 inmates as of June 2016, according to official statistics. The population is double the capacity of the nation’s prisons, which in the same year was estimated to be 368,049 inmates. Along with severe overcrowding, Brazil’s prisons are plagued by gang violence, while riots and breakout attempts are not uncommon.
