At least 33 Brazil inmates were killed in a prison riot on Friday, days after a drug gang was targeted in what’s being called the worst prison massacre in decades.
Officials said Friday's riot may be connected to the massacre that occurred Jan. 1-2, leaving 56 people dead, according to Reuters.
The brutal attacks have left some victims beheaded and dismembered.
In the latest riot, violence broke out overnight in Roraima state, according to NPR.
Local authorities think the riot is tied to the deadly massacre, which took place in a penitentiary in Manaus, just south of Roraima. Members of the Sao Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang were killed in the earlier attack, which is thought to have been led by the North Family drug faction, NPR reported.
“The Family is allied with the Rio de Janeiro-based Red Command drug gang, Brazil’s second most powerful faction after the PCC,” Reuters reported.
Despite these reports, Alexandre Moraes, the Brazilian justice minister, disputed that theory. Moraes thinks the new riot was sparked because of an internal conflict with the Sao Paolo-based gang, according to NPR.
NPR’s Philip Reeves reported Thursday that Brazilian officials are being asked about prison violence and how it’s been able to happen at such a magnitude.
“Rights activists say government has lost control of prisons to drug gangs who use inmates as foot soldiers,” Reeves reported. “Why, in the age of security cameras and X-ray machines, were there so many weapons inside the prison?”
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