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At Least 26 Dead in RN Riot; Brazil Homicide Count at 134

01/16/2017 - 13h16

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ESTELITA HASS CARAZZAI
FROM CURITIBA

FRANCISCO COSTA
COLLABORATION FOR THE FOLHA IN NATAL

At least 16 inmates died on Saturday (14) when a riot broke out at the Alcaçuz prison, in Natal's metropolitan region. The prison is the largest in the country. The information was released by the Rio Grande do Norte public security secretary.

With the latest report, the number of prison murders in the country has reached 134 in the first 15 days of the year.

This number already amounts to 36% of the total number of murders recorded last year. In 2016, there were 372 murders -averaging one murder a day in the country's prisons. The state of Amazonas led with 67 prison murders, followed by Roraima (33).

Nearly all of the bodies were beheaded. Two were burned and one was partially burned, according to Marcos Brandão, director of the Rio Grande do Norte forensics institute.

The severity of the injuries to the bodies, which remained at the prison 24 hours after the conflict, should create complications for the medical forensics team.

The truck rental attempts to make up for the structural deficiency of Natal's IML, the Itep (Institute of Forensic Science), where the deceased will be taken. Physicians and surgeons from Paraíba were summoned to help the shrinking team.

The Alcaçuz prison housed 1,084 inmates, but only has the capacity for 620. The same situation can be found in prisons throughout the country. Rio Grande do Norte has practically two times the number of inmates it can handle. There are close to 8,000 prisoners, in 32 prisons, with a capacity of 4,400.

Andressa Anholete/AFP
Inmates stand on the prison roof waving a flag with a message during a rebellion in Alcacuz Penitentiary Center near Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state, northeastern Brazil on January 16, 2017. The latest in a string of brutal prison massacres involving suspected gang members in Brazil has killed 26 inmates, most of whom were beheaded. The bloodbath erupted Saturday night in the overcrowded Alcacuz prison in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. Similar violence at other jails in Brazil left around 100 inmates dead in early January. / AFP PHOTO / ANDRESSA ANHOLETE
Inmates stand on the prison roof waving a flag with a message during a rebellion in Alcacuz Penitentiary Center near Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state, northeastern Brazil on January 16, 2017. The latest in a string of brutal prison massacres involving suspected gang members in Brazil has killed 26 inmates, most of whom were beheaded. The bloodbath erupted Saturday night in the overcrowded Alcacuz prison in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. Similar violence at other jails in Brazil left around 100 inmates dead in early January. / AFP PHOTO / ANDRESSA ANHOLETE

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

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