National Guardsmen and state police outside the prison facility.
A prison riot in Colima city on Tuesday morning left at least eight inmates dead and seven wounded.
The riot started at about 9 a.m. in cells at the Social Readaptation Center (Cereso), located near the Colima-Guadalajara highway, and was brought under control about an hour later, the state government said.
Police found sharp weapons, a firearm and telephones during a search, the state Attorney General’s Office said.
The state government said in a statement that the wounded men were given medical attention. “Inside two of the dormitories, seven people were found dead and eight people were injured, who were transferred to various hospital units,” it said.
One of the victims died later in hospital, the newspaper El País reported.
Colima Governor Indira Vizcaíno offered only scant details when she addressed the incident. “At 10 a.m. the state authority had total control of the situation in this penitentiary center … From the first moment, the Public Security Ministry and I have personally addressed this situation. I have asked the Attorney General’s Office to carry out the pertinent investigations …” she said.
This was the fifth such incident at a facility in Colima in the last two years, the newspaper La Jornada reported.
Earlier this month, the head of the state Human Rights Commission, Roberto Ramírez, said it was necessary to make improvements to the prison. He recommended that inmates’ food be improved and called for a review on how punishments were handled. Both recommendations remain pending.
There has already been a string of violent incidents so far this year in Mexican prisons: a fight in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, on Tuesday left at least two inmates injured, and 56 people were injured in a riot at a prison in Nuevo León earlier in January.
Meanwhile, on January 10, a baby’s body was discovered in a dumpster at a prison in Puebla.
With reports from El País, La Jornada and Infobae
