An inmate riot, that may have been staged to cover a breakout, left 44 prisoners dead on Sunday and the jail’s director and all guards on duty at the time detained, reported a security official. Jorge Domene Zambrano, a Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman, reported that the riot broke out at around 2 a.m. in a high-security section of a state prison in the city of Apodaca outside the northern industrial city of Monterrey.
Officials are investigating whether the fight was started by members of the rival Zeta and Gulf cartels, once the same organizations. The separation of the cartels has caused a spike in violence in the region around Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest and once the country’s symbol of development and prosperity. Before the state police regained control about two hours later, 44 people were killed. The victims were killed with makeshift knives and blows, which made the riot the deadliest so far in a Mexican prison.
