Jailed members of Brazil’s most powerful drug gang killed 31 inmates at a penitentiary on Friday, decapitating and cutting out the hearts of most of them, in revenge for a separate prison massacre that left 56 dead this week.
The bloodletting in the Monte Cristo prison in the Amazonian state of Roraima, carried out by members of the First Capital Command gang, sparked fears that months of violence between criminal groups controlling Brazil’s prisons had spiraled out of control.
The PCC itself was targeted on Sunday in neighboring Amazonas state in Brazil’s worst prison slaughter in more than two decades.In a cellphone video that circulated widely on social media, self-described PCC members are seen hacking away at bodies littering an outdoor patio inside the prison.
”You killed our brothers, didn’t you? Look here, look what is going to happen you! This is revenge for what you did to our brothers,” a PCC member is heard saying on the video as dozens of bodies lie in thick pools of blood.
One victim, bare-chested and wearing sky-blue surfer shorts, began to move on the ground. The inmate taking the video calls out to fellow gang members “We’ve got a live one!” before another gang member rushes over and cuts off the victim’s head with a white-handled barbecue knife.
State officials said the riot in Roraima’s largest prison was brought under control by elite police forces. Earlier, authorities put the death toll at 33 but by Friday evening lowered that figure to 31 dead. Violence between rival drug gangs at the same jail had already led to 10 deaths in October.
Roraima’s top security official Uziel de Castro blamed Friday’s violence at the state-run prison on the PCC. He later added that it was believed most of the inmates killed Friday were not members of the group responsible for this week’s attack on the PCC in Amazonas and indeed had no gang affiliations.
Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes insisted that the government had control over Brazil’s prison system – the fourth largest in world and home to more than 620,000 inmates.
