Child among 30 killed in Bolivia prison violence

11 years ago | Posted in: Latest Politics News | 778 Views

A battle among rival gangs in a prison in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands on Friday left 30 people dead, many burned to death, as witnesses said inmates used propane gas tanks as flamethrowers. Among the dead was an 18-month-old child.

The carnage in Palmasola maximum-security prison outside the regional capital of Santa Cruz also left 60 people injured, as inmates in one cell block attacked a neighbouring cell block with knives, machetes and canisters of gas, said Interior Minister Carlos Romero.

Mr. Romero said the fight was over leadership and space in the prison. Inmates in one cell block knocked a hole in the wall separating the two groups, and opened the valves on the gas tanks, using them as flamethrowers, he said. The straw mattresses used by the inmates caught fire and the flames spread.

“The victims were trapped in the fire,” Romero said.

Police and guards took several hours to put out the flames and control the violence.

The United Nations complained to Bolivia’s government two months ago about its policy of allowing children through age 6 to live with parents in prisons.

By midday about a dozen children had been evacuated from the prison.

The local representative of Bolivia’s independent Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, Maria Inez Galvez, told The Associated Press that she and other members of her group who were allowed to enter the prison saw “bodies of burned men, some of the wounded with burned hands, others with burned faces.”

“We didn’t know how to begin to help,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. She said that when she arrived at 8 am (local time) the worst of the wounded had been evacuated. Hospital officials said many had second-and third-degree burns.

“We also saw a man who had burns and got up and grabbed a police officer’s weapon in order to get taken to the hospital,” said Ms. Galvez.

She said there were not enough police available to escort wounded prisoners to hospitals to get medical attention.

Ms. Galvez said she was told the fight was over the refusal of the gang in one cell block to pay extortion fees to its rivals in the other cell block, who attacked around dawn while most inmates were sleeping.

source:Thehindu

Tags:

Share it.

Leave a Reply

Related Posts