SIX ARMED ATTACKERS DISGUISED AS COPS STORM MEXICAN PRISON

Five of the attackers were killed after they killed four inmates at Tuxpan Prison

Our penal system is constantly criticized by human rights organizations, but compared to Mexico and third-world countries, America’s prisons are more like luxury hotels.

NINE DEAD IN ATTACK ON TUXPAN PRISON IN GUERRERO STATE

Borderland Beat
January 4, 2013

The Attorney General of the State (PGJE) confirmed that an armed group early Friday attacked the Center for Rehabilitation of Tuxpan in Guerrero State, and 9 people, 4 inmates and 5 of the attackers, were killed. The attack occurred in the city of Iguala, about halfway between Mexico City and the Pacific Coast resorts of Acapulco.

Unofficial sources said the six armed attackers approached the prison disguised as Ministerial Police and told a guard at the gate that they were bringing in a prisoner after midnight. Once inside the prison, they went immediately to the area where the prisoners slept and opened fire on the sleeping inmates.

Four inmates were killed in the gunfire. The armed command then kidnapped a guard and held him hostage as they ran for the gate. They opened fire on the guard tower and gunfire was exchanged with the tower and other guards. Five of the attackers were killed in the shootout, while another attacker and a guard were injured.

The motive for the assault on the prison was unknown. Yahoo news reported that one of the dead inmates was a convicted cocaine dealer, another was a kidnapper and the two others were imprisoned for carrying illegal weapons.

In a statement Friday, the state prosecutors stated they had not ruled out the possibility of involvement by prison officials “by omission or participation”. Mexican prison authorities have a long history of colluding with criminals. Members of the country’s powerful drug cartels, meanwhile, have a long tradition of masquerading as law enforcement officials while doing some of their bloodiest business.

The attack came less than 2 months after the Mexican human rights commission issued a report on the deplorable conditions of the country’s penal system, noting that 65 of the 101 most crowded prisons were effectively under inmate control. That report emphasized that in 2012, in Mexican prisons, 261 inmates escaped and 174 were killed in riots, fights, and other acts of violence.