An injured prisoner waits for an ambulance after an inmates riot at La Mesa State Prison in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 15, 2008. Prisoners were angered by the alleged deaths of inmates at the hands of guards, and at least four prisoners were injured.
TIJUANA – A deadly riot at a notorious state penitentiary took a bizarre turn Monday when authorities revealed that the prison's two top commanders were now fugitives and a third officer had been arrested.
All three are under suspicion of murdering a prison inmate whose death may have helped spark the 12-hour riot.
The uprising ended about 2 a.m. Monday after a special police/military unit stormed the facility, officials said.
There were still conflicting reports about casualties and what sparked the melee. Officials with the Mexican Red Cross and the Medical Examiner's Office agreed that at least three people – all of them inmates – died in the riot.
According to Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, public safety secretary for Baja California state, two of the dead inmates had been shot, while the third had been beaten to death and his body set afire.
Another 25 inmates were injured, 13 of whom had to be hospitalized, he said. Six prison officers also were hurt.
Three inmates tried to escape amid the confusion but were caught, he said.
He characterized the riot as a fight between “two groups of very dangerous criminals.”
An estimated 1,200 relatives of inmates were inside the prison when the riot broke out Sunday night. Some of them were taken hostage, as were eight prison officers, said de la Rosa.
All the hostages eventually were released unharmed.
According to de la Rosa, the riot broke out around 2 p.m. Sunday after prison officers raided a prisoners' room. There, they found small quantities of marijuana and heroin, as well as cell phones and about $140 worth of Mexican government food vouchers, similar to food stamps in the United States.
An American-born nun who has ministered to La Mesa inmates since 1977 spent 40 minutes inside the facility Monday morning. She was stunned by what she saw.
“In my 31 years of working here, I have never seen such destruction,” said Sister Antonia Brenner, known affectionately among the inmates as Mother Antonia.
Dining rooms, offices and visitors' areas had been smashed, she said, adding that she saw hundreds of prisoners with signs of physical abuse.
“An earthquake of violence, of hate, of grudges happened here,” the nun said.
But by far the most startling revelations involved those in charge of the prison.
At a press conference Monday, de la Rosa said that a prison officer, Alex Cervantes Jaramillo, had been arrested for murder in connection with the fatal beating of an inmate prior to the riot.
He also said that the two men in charge of the prison, commandant Mario Antonio Ibarra and sub-commandant Daniel Ibarra Perez, also were wanted for murder in connection with the inmate's death.
Both men fled the prison and are considered fugitives, de la Rosa said. The was no word on whether the two Ibarras are related.
The inmate they are suspected of killing is believed to be 19-year-old Israel Marquez Blanco.
Investigators with the Baja California Attorney General's Office spent Monday morning inspecting the chronically overcrowded facility, said to house about 8,000 prisoners.
Authorities continued to block access to the penitentiary, nestled in a residential and commercial zone southeast of downtown Tijuana in a busy area of the city.
Hundreds of family members continued their vigil outside the main gate, which was damaged by a fire during the riot. By Monday afternoon, they had formed a cordon around the entire facility, demanding to know the fate of their loved ones on the other side of the perimeter wall.
After midnight Sunday, the state Department for Public Safety issued a three-paragraph written statement explaining trouble started after guards seized drugs and cellular phones found in some of the cells.
Family members waiting outside the prison Sunday night offered a contrasting version. They said a prison guard had beaten to death one of the inmates on Saturday and the prisoners rioted to demand justice.
“That's what happens when you kill inmates!” some of the prisoners chanted while perched atop a building Sunday night at the height of the disturbance.
An army of municipal, state, federal and military forces surrounded the La Mesa State Penitentiary in the hours after the riot broke out. Throughout the afternoon and into the night, inmates threw chunks of cement, rocks and flaming projectiles from the rooftop of one the buildings at authorities below.
The prison has long been notorious for the lawlessness within its walls, despite periodic initiatives by authorities to improve conditions and reduce overcrowding. The facility, made up of eight buildings, has been the site of numerous murders over the years as well as several uprisings.
Omar Millan Gonzalez is a contributor to the Union-Tribune's Latino newspaper, Enlace.
Omar Millan Gonzalez is a contributor to the Union-Tribune's Latino newspaper, Enlace.
