At least 60 people were killed in a violent prison riot in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus ignited by a combat between rival drug gangs, officials said on Monday. It is seen as one of the worst violence in over two decades in Brazil’s over-filled prison system.
Sergio Fontes, the head of security for Amazonas state said, the death toll may increase as authorities get a clearer picture of the scale of the revolt generated by a fight between rival drug gangs.
As per Fontes, a large number of the deceased had their beheaded bodies thrown over the prison wall. Notably, most of those killed belonged to one gang. “This was another chapter in the silent and ruthless war of drug trafficking,” he said.
However, as per Pedro Florencio, the Amazonas state prison secretary, the carnage was a “revenge killing” that formed part of a continuing dispute between criminal gangs in Brazil.
Actually, the riot began late Sunday and was brought under control after hours. Officials were still counting the prisoners to ascertain how many had fled with reports saying that nearly 300 escaped.
Soon after the riot started in one unit of the Anisio Jobim prison complex, lots of prisoners in another unit started a mass escape in what appeared to be a synchronized effort to confuse guards.
Overcrowding is awfully common in Brazil’s prisons. It usually triggers widespread violence with cells not even having the space to lie down and there is limited or no food for prisoners
Despite having a capacity of only 590, the Anisio Jobim prison complex currently houses 2,230 inmates.
Brazil’s prisons frequently receive criticism by watchdog groups due to deadly riots that routinely break out. “These massacres occur almost daily in Brazil,” said Father Valdir Silveira, director of Pastoral Carceraria, a Catholic center that checks prison situations in Brazil.
“Our prisons were built to annihilate torture and kill.”
This was the latest clash between prisoners aligned with the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang, Brazil’s most powerful, and a local Manaus criminal group known as the North Family.
