4 die in Brazilian jail rioting for better facilities

Inmates rioting for better facilities in a Brazilian jail killed four fellow prisoners, decapitating two of them, and took two guards hostage, officials said on Sunday.

Negotiations to resolve the standoff were to resume on Monday, with 60 percent of the jail still under inmate control overnight, said Elson Faxina, a state judicial spokesman.

Officials have cut water and electricity to the enclosure, Faxina added, saying police officers were guarding the prison to stop the riot from spreading.

"A group of prisoners took six inmates hostage. They killed four and have injured two. They also took hostage two guards," he said.

"Their demands are about facilities. It is an older building and they want food brought in."

But Faxina said there may also be an element of the uprising linked to a fight between drug-trafficking factions. "The fact that prisoners took hostages would reinforce that view," he said.

There were no numbers on how many inmates were involved in the uprising, but local media said that about 80 prisoners were transferred because they were threatened by the rioters.

The uprising took place in the Cascavel state correctional center in the southern city of Parana, a facility that currently holds 1,140 prisoners, he said.

"A group of prisoners rebelled during breakfast and took two officers hostage. Then they beheaded two prisoners," a civilian police agent assigned to the jail, Miguel Llanela, told AFP earlier.

According to news portal G1, the two other prisoners were killed when they were thrown off the roof of the buildings.

"Negotiation are likely to be prolonged, and I hope things are resolved verbally without using physical force," said an advocate for the prison staff, Jairo Ferreira Filho.

The prison workers union said that lack of funding meant there was no regular maintenance of the facility.

"The prisoners say the food is bad, there are no lawyers to work their trials, no basic hygiene materials, few correctional officers," it said.

"All these factors together are a tragedy waiting to happen."

(China Daily 08/26/2014 page12)