Forty-two prisoners were killed during a spat of Brazilian prison riots Monday, and many of those who died reportedly showed signs of asphyxiation, officials said.
Monday’s riots came a day after 15 died during fighting among prisoners at a fourth prison in the capital of Brazil’s northern Amazonas state, Manus. The total number of those killed in two days of riots is 57. Recent prison riots in the area have been intense affairs.
More than 120 inmates died during 2017 riots at the hands of other prisoners during several weeks of fighting among rival crime gang members at prisons in northern states. Many of the victims that year had their heads cut off or hearts ripped out.
A man lights up his cigarette with the flames of a bus burned by anti-government demonstrators during a protest. REUTERS/Adriano Machado
“I just spoke with (Justice) Minister Sergio Moro, who is already sending a prison intervention team to the State of Amazonas, so that he can help us in this moment of crisis and a problem that is national: the problem of prisons,” Amazonas state Gov. Wilson Lima told reporters Monday.
Drug-trafficking outfits in Brazil operate most of their businesses from prisons, media reports show. The 2017 riots were gang-related. (RELATED: Brazilian Prisoners Throw Severed Heads Over The Walls In Bloodiest Riot In Decades)
Brazilians must also contend with mob violence. An estimated 1.5 million citizens have participated in mob lynchings over the past six decades, media reports from 2018 show. Mobs kill or attempt to kill a person every day.
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