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Mexico prison riot: 52 people killed in Monterrey Mexico prison riot: at least 52 people killed and 12 injured in Monterrey
(about 1 hour later)
Fifty-two people have been killed and 12 wounded in a prison riot in Monterrey, north-eastern Mexico, the state governor has confirmed, just days ahead of a planned visit by Pope Francis to another prison nearby. A riot at a prison in the Mexican city of Monterrey involving inmates belonging to rival drug cartels has left at least 52 dead and 12 injured, just days before Pope Francis is due to visit another prison in northern Mexico.
The incident was one of the worst in a series of deadly riots in recent years to rock the country’s overpopulated prisons, which often house inmates from different drug cartels. Jaime Rodríguez, the governor of Nuevo León state, which encompasses Monterrey, confirmed the death toll on Friday morning and told reporters that the riot at the Topo Chico prison had begun shortly before midnight.
Fighting broke out before midnight in two areas of the Topo Chico prison between a faction of the Zetas gang and another group, Nuevo León state governor Jaime Rodríguez said. “During the clash several prisoners set fire to the food storage and sleeping areas,” Rodríguez said. It was not immediately clear how the victims died but the governor said there had been no gunfire.
Rodríguez said all 52 victims were male, adding that they had not yet all been identified. Five of the 12 wounded had serious injuries. Rodríguez said that one of the factions involved in the violence was led by a leader of the Zetas cartel, Juan Pedro Saldivar-Farías, known as “Z-27”. The leader of the other group, Jorge Iván Hernández, “El Credo”, was identified by Mexican media as a leader of the Gulf Cartel.
“During the clash several prisoners set fire to the food storage and sleeping areas,” Rodríguez told reporters. It was not immediately clear how the victims died but Rodríguez said there was no gunfire. Los Zetas, founded by a group of former special forces soldiers, were originally the Gulf Cartel’s enforcement wing, but turned on their former masters in 2010, triggering a vicious war for territory which has wrought havoc across north-eastern Mexico.
Rodríguez said the situation had been brought under control at about 1.30am. Television images showed police vehicles patrolling the streets near the prison. Milenio reported that inmates’ relatives who had been within the jail’s premises for conjugal visits had seen inmates with burns, and that authorities were searching for escapees. Saldivar-Farías was a suspect in the 2010 murder of American David Hartley, who was reportedly killed while jet skiing on Falcon Lake, which straddles the US-Mexico border.
The areas holding women and elderly inmates were calm, and Rodríguez said no women or children were hurt. Television images of the riot showed flames leaping from the prison. Families of the inmates gathered at the prison, demanding information about inmates and hurling stones at guards. Several told Foro TV they found out of about the disaster on social media.
Relatives of inmates shook the prison gates and tossed rocks at guards and police on the other side. “I want to know that my daughter is OK. She is in the infirmary. There are children in there,” one woman said. The riot was the latest demonstration of Mexican authorities’ failure to establish control inside their own correctional facilities.
“They left (Topo Chico) in the control of organized crime,” said Father Robert Coogan, a prison chaplain in the norther city of Saltillo, who belongs to a ministry that provides services to inmates in northern Mexican states.
The most recent report on prisons by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) found widespread evidence of “autogobierno” – or self-rule by inmates – and assigned the Topo Chico facility a score of 5.72 out of 10. The survey showed a deterioration in Nuevo León prisons over the past five years; only five of Mexico’s 32 states ranked worse.
Managing prisons has proved difficult in Mexico as the inmate populations swell with detainees from the ongoing crackdown on organized crime and drug cartels. Overcrowding has aggravated existing problems of corruption and intimidation in the cell blocks: prisoners are forced to pay inflated prices for everything from protection to proper food to being marked present in roll calls.
The CNDH report found the majority of Mexican state prisons suffered overcrowding and conditions of self-rule, while guards in one-third of the facilities lacked the proper training.
Related: 'A new era for Juárez': Pope's visit hails optimism for a city ravaged by drug warsRelated: 'A new era for Juárez': Pope's visit hails optimism for a city ravaged by drug wars
A 2014 human rights report said the prison was packed with 25% more criminals than it could hold, and faulted it for not preventing violent incidents. The prison has long housed members of the Zetas , and one Zetas leader was stabbed to death there in September. Coogan said wardens sometimes tolerate self-rule as it creates as sense of order – to the point that Los Zetas, when allowed to control the prison he served in Saltillo, kept the facility clean, imposed discipline and forced men to attend classes to complete primary and secondary school education.
The incident is the latest in a series of deadly riots in recent years to hit the country’s overcrowded prisons, which often house inmates from different drug gangs. The scandalous situation in Mexico’s prisons was exposed by cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán tunneling out of a maximum security facility last July. Marines recaptured Guzmán in January, prompting President Enrique Peña Nieto to tell Mexicans they could “trust” their security institutions.
In 2013, at least 13 people were killed and 65 injured in a prison riot, which was blamed on gang violence, in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. In 2012, at least 44 inmates died in a Nuevo León prison when members of the notorious Zetas drug cartel plotted with prison guards in an elaborate escape. Thursday’s violence was the latest in a long line of riots and violent clashes within the country’s prisons. In 2013, at least 13 people were killed and 65 injured in a riot, in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. In 2012, at least 44 inmates died in a Nuevo León prison in a fight between members of the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones.
Pope Francis is set to begin his first visit to Mexico as pontiff on Friday. Next week, he is set to visit a prison in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, which was once one of the most violent cities in the world. The Topo Chico riot occurred on the eve of Pope Francis’s arrival in Mexico for a visit in which he is expected to address uncomfortable issues like insecurity and violence. He also plans visit a prison in Ciudad Juárez, where cartels once called the shots and more than 200 murders were committed in 2010.
Prisons officials say the Cereso No 3 in Ciudad Juárez has improved markedly and recently received US certification. During a visit by the Guardian, however, prison officials only allowed inmates to be interviewed in the presence of guards.