This Sunday was recorded a riot between prisoners in the Canada prison, in Escuintla, Guatemala; leaving as a result several dead according to the authorities; who assure that the reason would be a fight between ex-gang members and criminals who do not belong to that group.
According to the statements of the spokesman for the Guatemalan Penitentiary System, Rudy Esquivel, the riot started at 4:30 p.m. local time on Sundaythrowing a total of 16 dead and several wounded.
Faced with this bloody confrontation, Esquivel announced that the pertinent investigations in the case had already been initiated, but he maintains that the incident occurred after a fight for control of the prison between rival groups.
On the other hand, local media reports of this prison, located 65 kilometers south of the country’s capital, Guatemala City; indicated that it houses 3,000 inmates but has a capacity for 600which could show the prison situation that exists in Latin America around overcrowding.
In the penal farm of Canada, there are members of the National Civil Police (PNC), representatives of the Public Ministry (MP-Prosecutor’s Office) and the Army; who are attending to everything related to the confrontation. The municipal firefighters also went into action when registering this eventuality.
Donald González, PNC spokesman, informed the public that The former members of the Maras gang were the ones who started this revolt; using high powered AK-47 rifles also known as “goat horns”. According to unofficial versions, it seems that 800 prisoners disagreed with the violent situation, so they decided to separate from it to avoid getting hurt.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior (interior), Elmer Sosa, stated: “security protocols estimate that it is not convenient to enter, since the safety of prisoners and authorities is at risk, since it is known that they have firearms and there could be an exchange of shots. ”. This prison has recently been involved in several events, due to the fact that five inmates escaped from there in May So far they have not been arrested, and in the middle of this 2015, a tunnel was discovered through which those deprived of liberty tried to escape. Another important piece of information is that the Guatemalan penitentiary system is responsible for 22 prisons in which 4,000 guards work, monitoring more than 19,000 inmates.