Police enter Brazil prison after gang clash; control tenuous
NATAL, Brazil — Military police entered a prison in northeastern Brazil on Saturday, establishing tenuous control after a week of chaos and fighting between rival gangs that left 26 inmates dead.
The unrest was the latest in a spate of violence in the country’s penitentiaries, in which at least 126 people have been killed since the beginning of the year. The fighting is typically between members of rival gangs that compete for control of drug trafficking routes outside prison walls.
A week after inmates first rioted at Alcacuz prison, riot police and other forces moved into the complex outside the city of Natal on Saturday. As a helicopter flew overhead, an armoured vehicle also entered the complex and later construction equipment was brought in. Authorities would not say how many officers entered the complex, but an Associated Press reporter saw about 40 go in.
A few hours after the operation began, Maj. Eduardo Franco, a military police spokesman, said the complex was again under police control.