A wave of riots in several prisons of Brazil makes 55 dead in two days

The Brazilian authorities have found this Monday at least 40 dead prisoners in the jails of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, in the north of the country, in addition to the 15 detainees found lifeless Sunday in another center of the city after a fight.

"42 dead have been found, all with Signs of death by suffocation", informed the Public Security Secretariat of Amazonas before reducing the number of casualties to 40.

Four of them were found in the prison complex Anísio Jobim (Compaj), where Sunday a "brawl between prisoners" of two pavilions killed 15 people, aged 21 to 42 years. Three of the prisons, where most of the deaths occurred, are nearby buildings, about 28 kilometers from Manaus, capital of Amazonas.

In 2017, at the same complex, 56 prisoners died in a conflict between two rival drug gangs, the Union of Crime RN and the First Commandment of the Capital (PCC), of San Pablo, which showed the great power that they have in the in the country's prisons and testifies to the insecurity, overcrowding and poor conditions of Brazilian jails.

The preliminary inquiry indicates that the deaths of the last two days "would be motivated by a dispute between prisoners belonging to the same criminal group, which is acting in the drug trade, "according to the Secretary of Public Security of Amazonas, who warned that the tragedy could be much worse and that they separated hundreds of prisoners threatened with death by others.

Monday's deadly scale is completed by 25 deaths at the Antonio Trinidade Penitentiary Institute (IPAT), 6 in the Puraquequara Prison Unit (UPP) and 5 in the Men's Remand Center (CDPM 1). .

"The fact that the dead were coordinated in four different presidencies suggests that it was an adjustment of the accounts", says Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape research institute.

Thanks to the work of the intelligence agencies, the agents began Monday to occupy the prisons of Manaus in order to separate prisoners threatened with death by other faction colleagues.

The Governor of the State of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, said in a statement that he had had a conversation with the Minister of Justice, ex-Judge Sergio Moro, to whom he had asked for help to contain "a national problem".

Rebellions are frequent in the country's prison system, considered by international organizations as one of the "worst" and "more inhuman".

According to data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the prison population in Brazil is about 700,000 peoplewhich is about twice the capacity of the penitentiary system.