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Nine Guards Held Hostage in Fresh Brazilian Prison Riot
About nine prison guards were taken hostage Tuesday, February 20, in a new prison riot in central Sao Paulo state, a day after the country's worst prison uprisings were put down in the state's 29 other prisons, local press reports said.
The Pirajui Penitentiary, which holds more than 800 prisoners, was surrounded by police and negotiations were underway for the release of the captives, the reports said.
The riot began after an unknown number of inmates overwhelmed the guards Tuesday afternoon at the penitentiary's No.1 unit and forced them to open the cells of all the prisoners, a police officer was quoted as saying. The jail's No.2 unit was involved in Sunday's riots.
The rioting inmates' demands are not immediately known. It is still not clear whether their motives are the same as those that revolted Sunday.
Riots started Sunday in Sao Paulo's Carandiru prison, the largest in South America with more than 7,500 inmates, and then quickly spread to 28 other prisons in the state. The massive rebellion, in which thousands of visitors and some guards were take hostage, claimed the lives of nine people before it was quelled Monday.
Rioting inmates in Sunday's uprising demanded the release of 10 leaders of the notorious First Capital Command mob group who were transferred to another prison from Carandiru on February 10. Police authorities said the gang leaders orchestrated the state- wide rebellion through cell phones.
Reports said the group is apparently an in-house organization and has controlled most of the state's detention centers.
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