BRASILIA (Reuters) - Drug gangs sparked a prison riot that killed 56 people, with decapitated bodies thrown over prison walls in the bloodiest violence in more than two decades in Brazil’s overcrowded penitentiary system, officials said on Monday.

Sergio Fontes, the security chief for Amazonas state, told reporters several decapitated bodies were thrown over the wall of the prison in the Amazon city of Manaus, with most of those killed coming from the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang.

“This was another chapter in the silent and ruthless war of drug trafficking,” he said.

Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes traveled to Manaus on Monday to meet Amazonas Governor José Melo Oliveira and other federal security officials about the riot.

Pedro Florencio, the Amazonas state prison secretary, said the massacre was a “revenge killing” in a feud between criminal gangs in Brazil.

The violence began late Sunday and was brought under control by around 7 a.m. AMT (1100 GMT) on Monday, Fontes said.

Just as the riot began in one unit of the Anisio Jobim prison complex, dozens of prisoners in the second unit started a mass escape in what authorities said was a coordinated effort to distract guards.

Overcrowding is extremely common in Brazil’s prisons, which suffer endemic violence and what rights groups call medieval conditions with food scarce and cells so packed that prisoners have no space to lie down.

The Anisio Jobim prison complex currently houses 2,230 inmates despite having a capacity of only 590.

Hours after the Anisio Jobim prison revolt ended, prisoners at an adjoining detention center began a riot and attempted to escape. Authorities said the situation was quickly brought under control.

Watchdog groups sharply criticize Brazil for its prisons, where deadly riots routinely break out.

“These massacres occur almost daily in Brazil,” said Father Valdir Silveira, director of Pastoral Carceraria, a Catholic center that monitors prison conditions in Brazil. “Our prisons were built to annihilate, torture and kill.”

A total of 184 inmates escaped, with 40 recaptured by Monday afternoon.

The violence was the latest clash between inmates aligned with PCC, Brazil’s most powerful drug gang, and a Manaus criminal group known as the North Family.

Relatives of prisoners gather near riot police at a checkpoint close to the prison where around 60 people were killed in a prison riot in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus, Brazil, January 2, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dantas

The Manaus-based gang is widely believed to be attacking PCC inmates at the behest of the Rio de Janeiro-based Red Command (CV) drug gang, Brazil’s second largest.

Four inmates were later found dead in another prison in the rural area of Manaus, but state representatives were unable to clarify if a riot had occurred.

BROKEN TRUCE

Security analysts have said that a truce that held for years between the PCC and CV was broken last year, resulting in months of deadly prison battles between the gangs and sparking fears that chaos would spread to other prisons.

In the latest riot, a group of inmates exchanged gunfire with police and held 12 prison guards hostage late on Sunday in the largest prison in Manaus, an industrial city on the banks of the Amazon River, Globo TV reported.

Fontes said 74 prisoners were taken hostage during the riot, with some executed and some released.

A video posted on the website of the Manaus-based newspaper Em Tempo showed dozens of bloodied and mutilated bodies piled on the prison floor as other inmates milled about.

Sunday’s riot was the deadliest in years. A 1992 rebellion at the Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo state saw 111 inmates killed, nearly all of them by police retaking the jail.

Slideshow (7 Images)

Maria Canineu, director of Human Rights Watch for Brazil, said the most recent violence was the result of “no government in 20 years giving much attention to the penitentiary system.”

Canineu said it has been difficult for years for states to receive any funding help from the federal government for prisons.

President Michel Temer announced last week that the federal government would furnish states with 1.2 billion reais ($366 million), mostly to improve infrastructure and security in existing prisons and to build new ones.

($1 = 3.2744 reais)</s>Families Flee Brazil Prison as Riot Kills at Least 56 Inmates

At least 56 inmates have been killed in a prison riot in Brazil, the largest prison massacre in the country’s history since 1992.</s>At least 56 inmates at a prison complex were killed in Brazil’s Amazonas state during a riot caused by rival drug gangs, which began on Sunday, Reuters reported on Monday. A total of 184 prisoners escaped during the violence at the Anisio Jobim complex, but around 40 were recaptured by Monday. A dozen security guards were taken hostage during the riot, but none were harmed.

Security chief for Amazonas Sergio Fontes said many of those killed were decapitated, with several bodies being thrown over the prison walls during the riot. Most of those killed were members of the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command drug gang, he added.

Other officers said members of the gang were being targeted by the Manaus-based North Family, allegedly on the orders of Rio de Janeiro’s Red Command drug group. The violence was brought under control by security forces 17 hours after it began.

Fontes called the riot “the biggest massacre” ever committed at a prison in the state, according to BBC. “During the negotiations [to end the riot], the prisoners had almost no demands,” he said. “Their only request was to not be mistreated by the police when they came in.”

Several firearms and tunnels were found in the prison complex after the riot ended. Officers said another riot at a separate complex was quickly brought under control by security personnel.

Brazil’s penitentiary system has frequently been criticised by rights groups for overcrowding and excessive violence. The Anisio Jobim complex currently houses 2,230 inmates, despite having a capacity for only 590. The director of Pastoral Carceraria, a Catholic centre monitoring prison conditions, said such massacres were a daily occurrence in the country. “Our prisons were built to annihilate, torture and kill.”

The riot took place a week after Brazilian President Michel Temer announced a $366 million (approximately Rs 2,494.83 crore) package for states to improve prison infrastructure.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — An attack by members of a crime gang on rival inmates touched off a riot at a prison in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, killing at least 56 dead, authorities said.

Several of the victims were beheaded or dismembered in the worst bloodshed at a Brazilian prison since 1992.

Authorities said the riot, which raged from Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, grew out of a fight between two of the country's biggest crime gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil.

In a separate incident Monday evening, four inmates were killed at another Amazonas prison. Police were investigating whether there was a connection between the mass killings at Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex and the later ones at Unidade Prisional do Puraquequara.

Amazonas authorities initially reported that 60 people were killed at Anisio Jobim in Manaus, but the state public security secretary's office later lowered the figure to 56. Officials also said 112 inmates escaped during the riot.

There were 1,224 inmates in the prison, which was built to hold 592, the Amazonas state public security's office said. The prison is run by a private company that is paid according to the number of inmates.

Twelve prison guards were held hostage during the riot; none were injured.

"This is the biggest prison massacre in our state's history," Public Security Secretary Sergio Fontes said at a news conference. "What happened here is another chapter of the war that narcos are waging on this country, and it shows that this problem cannot be tackled only by state governments."

Fontes confirmed that many of the dead had been beheaded. He said the inmates made few demands to end the riot, which he said indicated a killing spree organized by members of a local gang, the Family of the North, against those of the First Command of the Capital, based in Sao Paulo.

Judge Luis Carlos Valois, who negotiated the end of the riot, said he saw many bodies that had been quartered.

"I never saw anything like that in my life. All those bodies, the blood," Valois wrote on Facebook.

It was the largest death toll during a Brazilian prison riot since the killing of 111 inmates by police officers in the Carandiru penitentiary in Sao Paulo in 1992. Police said they acted in self-defense then.</s>A 17-hour uprising at a prison in Brazil claimed the lives of at least 56 prisoners over the weekend, state-run media agency Agencia Brasil reported Monday.

Bodies were thrown over the wall of the complex, and at least six people were decapitated, the news agency reported.

The revolt started Sunday afternoon as part of a rivalry between two criminal organizations at the Anisio Jobim Prison Complex in the city of Manaus, Agencia Brasil reported, citing Sergio Fontes, the public safety secretary for the state of Amazonas.

Violence erupted on Sunday between incarcerated members of the the Familia do Norte (FDN) and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) groups. The riot lasted for more than 17 hours.

The FDN controls drug trafficking and the “inside of prison complexes,” according to state media. Fontes said that the riot started over control of the drug trade behind the prison walls.

“They weren’t fighting because one is called one thing and the other one is called another. They are fighting for money,” he said.

“There is a silent war going on, and the state must intervene. What is this war? Drug trafficking. What did we see today? One faction fighting with another.”

Among the hostages were 74 prisoners and an unknown number of prison guards, Fontes said. Authorities said they did not know how many prisoners might have escaped from the complex.

As the riot raged, “dozens” of prisoners orchestrated an escape from another Manaus prison, the Antonio Trindade Penal Institute (Ipat). Fontes speculated that the jailbreak could have been arranged as a “smokescreen” for the Anisio Jobim riot, according to the Agencia Brasil report.

Prisoners also caused a “commotion” at one other penitentiary, according to the Amazonas public security secretariat.

Security forces did not enter the Anisio Jobim complex due to the “unpredictable” nature of the situation. According to Fontes, the riot “was managed with negotiation and respect for the human rights.”

He said said the riot instigators will be identified and held accountable for the murders and other crimes.

Alexandre de Moraes, Brazil’s justice minister, told reporters on Monday evening in Manaus, that the gang members responsible for the riot will be transferred to federal prisons.

“This is an important step to identify and remove those that headed this absurd riot on the first of the year,” he said.

Following the New Year’s incident, the government of the state of Amazonas has called for federal support to combat drug trafficking and strengthen security in Brazil’s detention centers.

Fontes said the preliminary investigation suggests the riot was premeditated.

“Everything indicates that the acts were planned over a long period of time,” he said.

“The inmates had established with the administration (of the prison) a promise that everything would run smoothly throughout the holidays and there wouldn’t be any problems. They didn’t keep their promise, but you can’t expect much from criminals, can you?”

The number of prisoners killed in Sunday’s incident is the highest since the deadly 1992 Carandiru massacre. In that case, 111 inmates died after police stormed the Carandiru penitentiary following a riot.</s>RIO DE JANEIRO — An attack by members of one crime gang on rival inmates touched off a riot at a prison in the northern state of Amazonas, leaving at least 56 dead, including several who were beheaded or dismembered in the worst bloodshed at a Brazilian prison since 1992.

Authorities said the riot that raged from Jan. 2-3 grew out of a fight between two of the country’s biggest crime gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil.

In a separate incident Jan. 3, four inmates were killed at another Amazonas prison. Police were investigating whether there was a connection between the mass killings at the Anisio Jobim Penitentiary Complex and the later ones at Unidade Prisional do Puraquequara.

Amazonas authorities initially reported 60 dead in the Anisio Jobim prison in Manaus, but the state Public Security Secretary’s office later reduced that figure to 56. Officials also said 112 inmates escaped during the riot.

There were 1,224 inmates in the prison, which was built to hold 592, Amazonas state public security’s office said. The prison is run by a private company that is paid according to the number of inmates.

Twelve prison guards were held hostage by the inmates during the riot, though none was injured.

“This is the biggest prison massacre in our state’s history,” Public Security Secretary Sergio Fontes said at a news conference.

“What happened here is another chapter of the war that narcos are waging on this country and it shows that this problem cannot be tackled only by state governments.”

Fontes confirmed that many of the dead had been beheaded. Judge Luis Carlos Valois, who negotiated the end of the riot with inmates, said he saw many bodies that had been quartered.

“I never saw anything like that in my life. All those bodies, the blood,” Valois wrote on Facebook.

It was the largest death toll during a Brazilian prison riot since the killing of 111 inmates by police officers in the Carandiru penitentiary in Sao Paulo in 1992. Police said they acted in self-defense then.

Two other prisons in Manaus also reported riots since Jan. 2. At one, 72 prisoners escaped, including an inmate who posted a picture of himself on Facebook as he left.

Amazonas police were also looking for any links between those two incidents and the riot at Anisio Jobim.

Authorities said that of the 184 inmates who escaped Amazonas prisons the last two days, only 40 had been recaptured.

Fontes said the inmates at Anisio Jobim made few demands to end the riot, saying that hinted at a killing spree organized by members of a local gang, the Family of the North, against those of the First Command of the Capital that is based in Sao Paulo.

Valois said that during the negotiations at Anisio Jobim, inmates asked only “that we did not transfer them, made sure they were not attacked and kept their visitation” rights.

Authorities said officers found a hole in a prison wall through which weapons entered the building.

A policeman was wounded in exchange of gunfire with the inmates. Several firearms were found when police searched the prison after the riot.

Jose Vicente da Silva, a former national public security secretary, said the incidents in Manaus were a result of Brazil’s severe recession and poor management of the prison system.

“Since 2014 homicides in prisons of Amazonas are double the national average, and last year they cut their public security budget by 50 percent due to austerity measures. This incident is a repetition in a bigger scale,” Da Silva told The Associated Press.

“Every year 500 inmates die in Brazilian prisons. With the current economic crisis and the budget cuts, the gangs get even bolder.”

The First Command, nationally known as PCC, is the most powerful drug and prison gang in Brazil and it has been trying to extend its reach to northern prisons dominated by the Family of the North.

To counter, Family of the North associated with the Red Commando of Rio de Janeiro, the second biggest crime gang in Brazil.

To avoid another wave of killings of PCC members, Amazonas authorities said they had relocated 130 inmates to a prison that was opened in 1907 but deactivated in October because of substandard conditions.</s>About 60 people have been killed in a bloody prison riot sparked by a war between rival drug gangs in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus, officials said Monday, in some of the worst violence in years in Brazil's overcrowded penitentiary system.

Sergio Fontes, head of security for Amazonas state, told a news conference that the death toll could rise as authorities get a clearer idea of the scale of the rebellion sparked by a fight between rival drug gangs.

Manaus' Em Tempo newspaper reported that several of the dead had their decapitated bodies thrown over the prison wall.

The riot began late Sunday and was brought under control by around 7 a.m. local time Monday, Fontes said. Authorities were still counting the prisoners to determine how many had escaped, he added.

International watchdog groups sharply criticize Brazil for its prison system, as overcrowding is the norm and deadly riots routinely break out.
• Lockdown lifted at Sask. prison after riot earlier this month
• 1 dead, at least 8 injured in Saskatchewan prison riot

The massacre was the latest clash between inmates aligned with the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang, Brazil's most powerful, and a local Manaus criminal group known as the North Family.

The Manaus-based gang is widely believed to be attacking PCC inmates at the behest of the Rio de Janeiro-based Red Command (CV) drug gang, Brazil's second largest.

Security analysts have said that a truce that held for years between the PCC and CV was broken last year, resulting in months of deadly prison battles between the gangs and sparking fears that chaos will spread to other prisons.

In the latest riot, a group of inmates exchanged gunfire with police and held 12 prison guards hostage late on Sunday in the largest prison in Manaus, an industrial city on the banks of the Amazon River, Globo TV reported.

Fontes said that 74 prisoners were taken hostage during the riot, with some executed and some released.

A video posted on the website of the Manaus-based newspaper Em Tempo showed dozens of bloodied and mutilated bodies piled atop each other on the prison floor as other inmates milled about.

Brazil's prison system is precariously overcrowded and conditions in many institutions are horrific. That has sparked a rash of deadly riots in recent years.

Sunday's riot was the deadliest in years. A 1992 rebellion at the Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo state saw 111 inmates killed, nearly all of them by police as they retook the jail.</s>MANAUS: Rioting inmates decapitated their rivals in brutal fighting between two gangs in a Brazilian jail that left 56 dead, while 144 prisoners escaped, officials said Monday.

The riot broke out Sunday afternoon and lasted through the night at a prison on the outskirts of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, state public security secretary Sergio Fontes said.

Bloodied and burned bodies were stacked in a concrete prison yard and piled in carts, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Fontes’s department later lowered the death toll to 56 from an earlier count of 60.

The fighting ranks among the most deadly of numerous prison riots across Latin America in the past decade.

Fontes called it “the biggest massacre” ever committed at a prison in the state.

Outside, heavily armed police hunted for dozens of inmates who escaped through a series of tunnels discovered at the Anisio Jobim penitentiary complex.

Fontes’s department later said that 112 prisoners escaped from that prison and another 72 from the nearby Antonio Trindade Penal Institute. Just 40 of the escapees were captured, it added.

Police finally restored order at the prison on Monday morning, freeing 12 guards who had been taken hostage, Fontes said.

“Many (victims) were decapitated, and they all suffered a lot of violence,” he told a news conference.

He said the gruesome scene appeared aimed at sending a message from the Family of the North (FDN), a powerful local gang, to rivals from the First Capital Command (PCC), one of Brazil’s largest gangs.

The PCC’s base is in Sao Paulo, some 2,700 kilometers (1,650 miles) to the southeast.

“During the negotiations (to end the riot), the prisoners had almost no demands,” Fontes told local radio network Tiradentes.

“We think they had already done what they wanted: kill members of the rival organization.”

It was the latest eruption of horrific violence to hit Brazil’s underfunded and overcrowded prisons.

In October, deadly riots broke out at three prisons, blamed on fighting between members of the country’s two largest gangs, the PCC and the Red Command (CV).

During that episode, rioting inmates took visitors hostage, beheaded rivals and burned others alive, killing 33 people in all, the authorities said.

Brazil’s prisons are often controlled by drug gangs, whose turf wars on the outside are also fought out among inmates.

“There is a silent war of drug trafficking, and the state needs to intervene,” Fontes said.

“What did we see in this case? One faction fighting another because each wants more money. The fight is for money and space.”

Brazil has struggled for years against a lucrative and violent drug trade.

But jailing drug traffickers has done little to solve the problem. It may even fuel it, critics say.

Human rights groups have long complained about the conditions in Brazilian prisons.

“The problem starts with overcrowding,” lawyer and activist Marcos Fuchs said.

“When you put inmates from rival factions in the same prison unit, the state has no control over what happens inside.”

Some 622,000 people were imprisoned in Brazil as of the end of 2014, most of them black males, according to a justice ministry report.

That makes it the world’s fourth-largest prison population, the report said, after the United States, China and Russia.

Brazil’s prisons need 50 percent more capacity to handle the current number of inmates, the justice ministry report found.

There were 1.67 prisoners for every available space, it said. In Amazonas state, the figure was 2.59 prisoners for every space. AFP</s>MANAUS, Brazil: The instigators of a horrific prison riot in Brazil that left 56 inmates dead -- many of them decapitated -- will be transferred to higher security federal prisons, the justice minister said on Tuesday.

As soon as these ringleaders are identified, at the request of the Manaus state government they will be transferred, said the minister, Alexandre de Moraes.

The riot broke out on Sunday afternoon and lasted through the night at a prison on the outskirts of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, state public security secretary Sergio Fontes said.

Bloodied and burned bodies were seen stacked in a concrete prison yard and piled in carts.

A total of 184 inmates escaped, and so far 40 have been caught, Moraes said.

The fighting ranks among the most deadly of numerous prison riots across Latin America in the past decade.

Fontes called it the biggest massacre ever committed at a prison in the state.

Outside, heavily armed police hunted for inmates who escaped through a series of tunnels discovered at the Anisio Jobim penitentiary complex.

Police finally restored order at the prison on Monday morning, freeing 12 guards who had been taken hostage, Fontes said.

"Many victims were decapitated, and they all suffered a lot of violence," he told a news conference.

He said the gruesome scene appeared aimed at sending a message from the Family of the North (FDN), a powerful local gang, to rivals from the First Capital Command (PCC), one of Brazil´s largest gangs.

The PCC´s base is in Sao Paulo, some 2,700 kilometers to the southeast.

"During the negotiations to end the riot, the prisoners had almost no demands," Fontes told local radio network Tiradentes.

"We think they had already done what they wanted: kill members of the rival organization."

It was the latest eruption of horrific violence to hit Brazil´s underfunded and overcrowded prisons.

In October, deadly riots broke out at three prisons, blamed on fighting between members of the country´s two largest gangs, the PCC and the Red Command (CV).

During that episode, rioting inmates took visitors hostage, beheaded rivals and burned others alive, killing 33 people in all, the authorities said.

Brazil´s prisons are often controlled by drug gangs, whose turf wars on the outside are also fought out among inmates.

"There is a silent war of drug trafficking, and the state needs to intervene," Fontes said.

"What did we see in this case? One faction fighting another because each wants more money. The fight is for money and space."

Brazil has struggled for years against a lucrative and violent drug trade.

But jailing drug traffickers has done little to solve the problem. It may even fuel it, critics say.

Human rights groups have long complained about the conditions in Brazilian prisons.

"The problem starts with overcrowding," lawyer and activist Marcos Fuchs said.

"When you put inmates from rival factions in the same prison unit, the state has no control over what happens inside."

Some 622,000 people were imprisoned in Brazil as of the end of 2014, most of them black males, according to a justice ministry report.

That makes it the world´s fourth-largest prison population, the report said, after the United States, China and Russia.

Brazil´s prisons need 50 percent more capacity to handle the current number of inmates, the justice ministry report found.

Brazil prison riot leaders to be transferred was posted in World of TheNews International - https://www.thenews.com.pk on January 04, 2017 and was last updated on January 04, 2017. This news story is related to Print/176567-Brazil-prison-riot-leaders-to-be-transferred/ - breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. Permanent link to the news story "Brazil prison riot leaders to be transferred" is https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/176567-Brazil-prison-riot-leaders-to-be-transferred.</s>At least 56 inmates have been killed after fighting started a riot at a prison in the state of Amazonas in northern Brazil.

Officials said the death toll included several who were beheaded or dismembered in the worst bloodshed at a Brazilian prison since 1992.

The riot apparently grew out of a fight between two of the country's biggest crime gangs over control of prisons and drug routes in northern Brazil.

Amazonas authorities initially reported 60 dead but on Monday afternoon the state public security secretary's office reduced that figure to 56.

State public security secretary Sergio Fontes said some inmates escaped from the Anisio Jobim penitentiary complex in Manaus during the riot, but he did not say how many. He said 40 had been recaptured.

There were 1,224 inmates in the prison, which was built to hold 592, Mr Fontes said. The prison is run by a private company that is paid according to the number of inmates.

Twelve prison guards were held hostage by the inmates, though none was injured during the riot that began on Sunday afternoon and ended on Monday morning.

Mr Fontes confirmed many of the dead had been beheaded while Judge Luis Carlos Valois, who negotiated the end of the riot with inmates, said he saw many bodies that had been quartered.

It was the largest death toll during a Brazilian prison riot since the killing of 111 inmates by police officers in the Carandiru penitentiary in Sao Paulo in 1992.

Two other prisons in Manaus also reported riots on Monday.

At one, 87 prisoners escaped, including an inmate who posted a picture of himself on Facebook as he left.

Amazonas police were investigating whether there was a link between the violence at the three prisons. By evening, state police said the situation was stable in all three prisons.

Mr Fontes said the inmates at Anisio Jobim made few demands to end the riot, saying that hinted at a killing spree organised by members of a local gang, the Family of the North, against those of the Sao Paulo-based First Command of the Capital.

The secretary said officers found a hole in a prison wall through which weapons entered the building.

A policeman was wounded in exchange of gunfire with the inmates. Several firearms were found when police searched the prison after the riot.

Jose Vicente da Silva, a former national public security secretary, said the incidents in Manaus were a result of Brazil's severe recession and poor management of the prison system.

He added: "Since 2014 homicides in prisons of Amazonas are double the national average and last year they cut their public security budget by 50% due to austerity measures. This incident is a repetition in a bigger scale."
Prisoners kill at least 56 people in a prison riot in Manaus, Brazil.