World

Prison fight in northern kills 31 inmates

  • Breaking News
  • Published : 05.01.2012 09:24
    Updated : 05.01.2012 09:24

A fight between rival gangs inside a prison in northern left 31 inmates dead in the latest violence to erupt inside the country's overcrowded jails, local officials said on Wednesday.

Clashes between prisoners wielding knives and homemade weapons started around mid-day and were controlled several hours later in Altamira, , on 's Gulf coast, said state government spokesman Guillermo Martinez.

Thirteen other inmates were wounded, the state government said.

Powerful drug s are fighting for control of smuggling routes along the U.S.-Mexico border and rivalries often spread into the prison system, where prisoners held on federal drug charges are mixed with common criminals.

Last October, twenty died in a prison fight at another jail in Tamaulipas and in July, 17 inmates were killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city, across from El Paso, Texas.

More than 46,000 people have died in Mexico in the past five years since President Felipe Calderon launched a frontal attack on drug gangs. Packed and inefficient prisons often suffer from corruption and mass escapes.

Violence exploded in Tamaulipas state after the Zetas gang broke away from the Gulf cartel and began battling their former employers for turf.

Tags: Mexico, cartel, Tamaulipas

Other World News
Other World News
Air strike flattens building in Gaddafi compound
Deathtoll in Syria's Latakia reaches 26
A great struggle just for clean water
Obama called Erdoğan on Egypt
Taliban bin Laden revenge bombing kills 80 in Pakistan
Erdoğan pays a call to Obama
Israel PM's son accused of anti-Islamic comments
Turkey urges Syria to halt assaults
Dozens killed in Syria violence
Workers briefly abandon Japan nuclear plant as crisis worsens
Astronomers discover planet made of diamond
Tripoli buries dead as battle toll emerges
Syria tank assault kills 11 near Turkey border
Radiation spikes in seawater by stricken Japan plant
Clinton urges Africa to drop Gaddafi
Tanks shell Syrian city
Man nabbed at airport with snakes in his pants
Assad speech offers little to protesters
Osama bin Laden killed in shootout
Sunday massacre leaves 124 dead in Syria
"Restrepo” director Tim Hetherington killed in Libya
Aided by air strikes, Libya's rebels push west
U.S. warships move through Suez, Gaddafi defiant
Libyans to fight if West imposes no-fly zone
NATO destroys Gaddafi compound guard towers
Dutch state failed to prevent Srebrenica deaths
Defections tighten noose around Gaddafi
Ankara sends a message to Gaddafi
Turks fleeing Libya take refuge in soccer stadium
Four messages for Assad
Prosecutors ask NY judge to drop Strauss-Kahn case
Evacuees from Libya drown in Greek waters
Bin Ali is in a coma and Mubarak is next in line…
Egypt army serious about transition
Defiant Gaddafi vows to die as martyr
Gaza flotilla will set sail next week
Strauss-Kahn criminal sexual assault case dropped