Roundup: Riot-rocked Mexican prison suffers slack governance

The northern Mexican prison where 49 prisoners died during a riot is beset with governance and security problems that authorities have failed to address, judicial experts said Thursday.

Leslie Solis, a security and justice investigator at Mexico Analua, a public policy think tank, said that the Mexican ombudsmen had stated in the past that the Topo Chico prison lacked prison guards and its management ability was too poor to maintain security.

"Topo Chico and prisons in the northern state of Nuevo Leon in general have received negative appraisals in fundamental areas such as guaranteeing the security of inmates and the quality of their lives, and maintaining governance inside the prison," Solis told Xinhua.

Topo Chico, with about 4,000 inmates, is the largest prison in Nuevo Leon. Designed with a capacity for 3,685 prisoners, the prison is overcrowded.

"These problems had been registered; the statistics were there for anyone in government who wanted to see them. They were just never acted upon," Solis said.

The riot broke out at 11:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday as two rival gangs fought inside the prison. It lasted until 1:30 a.m. Thursday when security forces managed to gain control of the situation, according to the state government.

This incident is one of the worst in recent Mexican history. However, Nuevo Leon's prison record is a long and bloody one. In February 2012, 44 prisoners died in the prison of Apodaca in a fight between two rival gangs.

"Very severe incidents happened since the last state government took over. Tragically, the situation has not been improved," said Elena Azaola, an investigator from the Center for Investigations and Superior Studies in Social Anthropology.

Azaola, who has been researching the Mexican prison system for years, warned that the Topo Chico riot could be just an example of the lack of security and control that plagues many of Mexico's 373 prisons.

"Authorities do not have enough budget or personnel for prisons. The personnel that exists has little control over inmates who can be very cruel to those who do not belong to their gang," she explained.

"The government does not give prisons the priority they deserve," Azaola said. Endi