The casualties included inmates and prison guards, local media said.
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“They used sharp weapons, bats, sticks”, the governor told radio Imagen, adding that the 60-year-old penitentiary houses 3,800 inmates, twice its capacity, overseen by 100 guards. The report said relatives of prisoners had heard gunshots and that a blaze had broken out at about half past midnight.
“I don’t know if my son is dead!” a woman screamed.
Forces from the federal police, the marines and the army surrounded the prison, the governor said, as relatives of the inmates gathered outside awaiting news.
The deadly riot comes days ahead of a planned visit by the Pope to visit another prison in northern Mexico. However, after the news broke, hundreds of family members rushed to the gates of Topo Chico demanding information about their loved ones who were still inside. Rodriguez himself survived two assassination attempts while opposing drug cartels as mayor of a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico’s third most populous metropolitan area and home to numerous country’s largest corporations.
“We are experiencing a tragedy”, he said. Aside from the 52 dead, 12 others were injured, and five were reported to be in critical condition.
That same month, 44 inmates were killed and 30 escaped in a riot at a prison in Apodaca, near Monterrey.
Gangs led by Ivan Hernandez Cantu, alias “El Comandante Credo”, and Juan Pedro Salvador Zaldivar, alias “El Z 27” clashed.
Smoke was seen billowing from the complex.
“The main yard is completely burned”.
“They burned everything”, said another woman who said she was inside the jail when the violence started. “There are shovels and objects thrown around, yellow tape placed by investigators”. “The process of identifying victims continues”, he said during a press conference. In 2011, the head of security was murdered. Next week, he will visit a prison in border city Ciudad Juarez, once one of the world’s most violent cities.
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Gang violence and breakouts are common in Mexico’s notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system. It appears to be done as a cover to help a group of prisoners escape. He was recaptured in January.
