Prison Riot Leaves at Least 52 Inmates Dead in Brazil’s Pará State

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A riot in the Regional Correctional Facility in Altamira, State of Pará, which broke out on Monday morning, July 29th, presumably as a result of a confrontation between rival criminal factions, left at least 52 detainees dead.

Officials from the Pará Penitentiary System (Susipe), speaking at a news conference, said that sixteen of the dead were decapitated. According to Susipe, two prison officers were taken hostage, but released in the early afternoon, when the riot was apparently under control.

Susipe says the riot began when detainees from block A, where prisoners from a criminal organization are detained, broke into the enclosure where inmates of a rival group were being held. The prisoners set fire to the premises. According to Susipe, the smoke infiltrated the enclosure and prisoners also died of suffocation from smoke inhalation.

The State Police Task Force is on site. The Civil Police, the District Attorney, and the Altamira Court were also at the facility, taking part in negotiations for the release of hostages.

In May, 57 prisoners were killed in the neighboring state of Amazonas as drug gangs waged a vicious battle for supremacy for smuggling routes.