3 dead, 1 injured in Mexico prison riot

MEXICO CITY (AP) – A fight between inmates at a northern Mexican prison left three inmates dead and one injured, authorities said Saturday.

The clash followed a riot and mass escape at the prison in Ciudad Victoria, capital of the northern border state of Tamaulipas.

The state security spokesman, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, said Saturday in his Twitter account that control had been re-established.

Rodriguez said that prisoners had essentially controlled a prison patio, where they built illegal shacks. They used one of those shacks to hide a tunnel through which the 29 escaped overnight Wednesday to Thursday. Thirteen have since been recaptured.

On Friday, authorities demolished those shacks, which the prisoners had used as informal shops and workshops, and inmates later set fire to the resulting rubble, apparently in protest.

The fight then ensued. It was unclear how the inmates died, but when the escape occurred, at least one of the prisoners had a gun, which he used to kill a passing motorist in a carjacking.

Rodriguez said Saturday that control had been re-established.

Overcrowding, corruption and inmate control of prison areas have been persistent problems in Mexican prisons.

Rodriguez said about 30 guards at the facility had been placed under investigation, and appealed for help from neighboring states in re-apprehending the escaped inmates.

He said the prison dates to the 1940s and was outmoded. State authorities have been looking into moving the prisoners to other facilities, outside the city.

Ciudad Victoria has been dominated for years by the fragmented Zetas cartel.

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