GUATEMALA CITY – At least seven inmates were beheaded this Wednesday in a riot at a jail in western Guatemala, according to police sources.
The massacre took place around 4 pm local time at the Model Rehabilitation Farm in the municipality of Cantel, in the department of Quetzaltenango, some 140 miles west of Guatemala City.
The mutiny was registered in one of the prison’s courtyards, where 2,252 inmates live in an overcrowded condition (more than 200% capacity), with a balance confirmed by police sources to Efe of seven dead, although local media indicated that they could have been identified several more beheaded.
The Guatemalan Office for the Prevention of Torture condemned the violent events that occurred in the Cantel prison and called on the authorities to urgently regain control of the prison.
IN THE PRISON, THERE ARE 2,252 INMATES IN CROWDED CONDITIONS
The Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office) and the Ministry of the Interior (Interior), in charge of the Penitentiary System, have not provided official data on what happened.
The massacre recorded this Wednesday is one of several recorded in prisons in the recent history of the Central American country.
Some of the villagers’ houses are less than a mile away from the lava, which is moving slowly but steadily.
In July 2016 there was a brawl between two rival groups that sought control of the Pavón Penal Farm in Guatemala City and that left 14 dead, one of them Army Captain Byron Lima, sentenced to 20 years for participating in the murder of Bishop Juan José Gerardi.
In addition, last Sunday the Penitentiary System reported another armed attack in a prison in Guatemala City, the Preventive Center of Zone 18, which left one inmate dead and one wounded.
The victim of the attack, which occurred in annex “B” of sector 1 of the prison, was identified as Gustavo Andretti Yordany Orozco Reyes, brother of drug trafficker Jorge Mario Moreira Reyes, known as “El Marino.”
Look at the procession that these “crawlers” must go through for 7 consecutive years.
According to official information from the Penitentiary System, in the 21 prisons attached to the Penitentiary System there are 25,122 people deprived of liberty, with an estimated 52% of inmates serving sentences and 48% in preventive detention; in addition to an overcrowding of more than 370%, according to specialists.
Guatemala is one of the 15 most violent countries on the planet according to various indices from international organizations, due in large part to drug trafficking, gangs and crime.