Colombia Prison Riot Leaves 26 Dead
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BOGOTA, Colombia — Rioting that broke out after an inmate’s mutilated body was found stuffed in a prison sewer pipe led to 26 deaths before the unrest ended Friday, the worst bloodletting in Colombia’s violent prison system.
The Modelo federal prison melee between paramilitary fighters and common criminals marked the collapse of a nonviolence pact signed by inmates at the facility in Bogota, the capital, two months ago.
Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez, whose job includes prison oversight, called the latest killings the product of “40 years of government neglect” of Colombia’s corrupt, anarchic and overcrowded jails.
The rioting broke out Thursday after guards found the body of a missing inmate--said to be a jailed paramilitary member--chopped to pieces in a garbage bag inside a sewer pipe, police operations director Gen. Alfonso Arellano said.
The discovery led to retaliation killings that tapered off early Friday.
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