A battle between the Los Zetas drug gang and the Gulf Cartel at a prison left 52 people dead in the northeastern Mexican city of Monterrey, authorities said Thursday, days ahead of a planned visit by Pope Francis to another jail in Mexico's far north. Officials also said there were at least 12 injured, five of whom are reported to be in critical condition.
The war broke out when leaders of the two cartels, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, decided to take over control of the whole prison, a problem all jails in Mexico have since inmates are allowed to be armed with weapons, including assault rifles and grenades, and engage in the sale of drugs in complicity with government and penitentiary officials.
A fire broke out after the clashes erupted in the Topo Chico jail in Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state, according to the local government via a Twitter post.
The incident is one of the worst in a series of deadly riots in recent years to rock the country’s overpopulated prisons, which in the case of Topo Chico is over 21 percent of the recommended inmate population.
Nuevo Leon officials also said that a further 12 had been wounded with five of those in a critical condition.
De las primeras indagatorias se puede confirmar el fallecimiento de 52 personas y la existencia de 12 heridos, 5 de ellos de gravedad. — Prensa Nuevo León (@comunicacionNL) February 11, 2016
"Preliminary investigations confirm the death of 52 people and 12 wounded, five of them seriously"
Witnesses who gathered outside the prison said they heard gunshots, saw smoke billowing from the complex and inmates with burns.
Local media reported that prisoners and guards were among the casualties, and that one of four buildings in the prison had been set alight by inmates burning furniture and trash.
The Nuevo Leon state government also confirmed via Twitter that police forces brought the situation under control quickly after fighting began but gave no information on what prompted the clashes.
People stand outside Topo Chico Prison while waiting for news on their jailed family members in Monterrey, Mexico, Feb. 11, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
Television images also showed relatives of inmates shaking prison gates and tossing 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 outside the prison as some relatives vented their anger at police forces who patrolled the area outside.
En relación a los hechos ocurridos en el Penal del Topo Chico se informa que la situación está bajo control desde las 1:30 horas. — Prensa Nuevo León (@comunicacionNL) February 11, 2016
"In relation to the events at the Topo Chico prison, the situation (is) under control."
The riot is the latest of a number of deadly clashes in one of Mexico's prisons which are often overcrowded and house inmates who are part of rival drug factions.
In 2013, at least 13 people were killed and 65 injured in a prison riot, in gang-related violence in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi.
In 2012, at least 44 inmates died in a Nuevo Leon prison when members of the notorious Zetas drug cartel plotted with prison guards in an elaborate escape.
Pope Francis is to begin his first visit to Mexico as pontiff Friday. During his trip he will visit a prison in the U.S. border city of Ciudad Juarez, which was once one of the most violent cities in the world due to fighting between drug gangs and government security forces.
