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Fresh Jail Riots Hit Peru
More than 500 prisoners rioted Tuesday at a Peruvian jail, the third of its kind in the last 24 hours, protesting "infrahuman" treatment and demanding a repeal of the terrorism law, local authorities said.
Inmates of the high-security Picsi jail in Chiclayo, 780 kilometers north of Lima, set mattresses on fire and presented their demands on banners from the roof of the penitentiary.
Among the rioters, there is a group staging a hunger sit-in, said the inmates in a statement to the press.
The inmates also demanded the presence of Justice Minister Fernando Olivera to present him their problems.
Representatives of the Attorney General's office and the National Penitentiary Institute are now present in the prison, negotiating an end to the uprising with the inmates.
Monday witnessed two such riots for the same reason, one at the Miguel Castro prison in the Canto Grande area of Lima, and the other in the El Milagro jail in Trujillo, 570 kilometers north of Lima, the capital of Peru.
The riots in Lima and Trujillo, which injured three prisoners of over 500 protesting inmates, were solved with the signing of documents on commitment to comply with the demands.
The law on terrorism was enacted under the rule of the now disgraced President Alberto Fujimori for tackling rebellion in the country. Initially, only members of rebel groups were charged under the law, but soon it began to be used to process cases of armed robberies in military courts.
The rioters demanded such proceedings be revised and the accused be brought to trial in civil courts.
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