Brazil: Barbarity Takes Over Prisons with 130 Deaths

Cruelty finally seemed to take over Brazilian prisons, where in the first two weeks of this year more than 130 prisoners were killed, most of them being slit or charred.

'The scene was a barbarity. They were decapitated bodies. Much destruction 'are the impressions of the Secretary of Justice and Citizenship of Rio Grande do Norte, Wallber Virgolino da Silva, after the massacre occurred in Alcazuz penitentiary, the largest in the state and where 26 inmates were killed yesterday.

Expert witnesses confirmed Da Silva's appreciation and confirmed that all of the dead were decapitated or charred. In all cases, the experts added, the corpses had sharp object marks and apparently, none had any traces of shots.

The prison of Alcazuz was shaken for 14 hours by a revolt that began on Saturday afternoon and could only be stifled the day before after military police forces, including shock troops and the Special Operations Battalion, could enter the area of the disturbances in a quiet way.

This was the largest massacre recorded in the history of the prison system in Rio Grande do Norte and, according to the Secretary of Public Security and Social Defense Caio César Bezerra, the outbreak occurred when prisoners invaded another one of a rival faction to massacre their opponents.

At the Paraná State Penitentiary of Piraquara, located in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, 28 prisoners were fleeing and two killed yesterday in clashes with police trying to stop the stampede.

So far this year, riots in Brazilian prisons have killed at least 134 inmates, more than a third of all murders recorded last year in the precincts (372).