TIJUANA – A riot at a notorious Baja California prison that left three inmates dead and portions of the facility in flames before police reasserted control yesterday may have been triggered by the death of an inmate during an altercation with prison staff.

K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune Rosa Maria Salcido (bottom right), relayed news from officials inside La Mesa prison in Tijuana to inmates' families gathered outside yesterday.

PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune Prisoners inside the La Mesa penitentiary in Tijuana walked from their cellblock to the cafeteria yesterday, waving to crowds amassed on nearby rooftops. Behind the prisoners are buildings charred during the riot.

PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune Anxious relatives of La Mesa inmates listened to a police official explain that they could pass notes inside via a social worker.

Authorities said La Mesa prison's two top officials are fugitives and a guard is in custody in connection with the 19-year-old prisoner's death.

Prison guard Alex Cervantes Jaramillo was arrested, and authorities are looking for Marco Antonio Ibarra Chavez, the prison's top commander, and his lieutenant, Daniel Ibarra Perez.

Baja California's public safety director, Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, said two of the three inmates who died during the riot were shot and the other was beaten and then burned.

“Those who started the riot are among the most dangerous inmates we have. They are kidnappers, assassins and people linked to organized crime,” he said.

La Mesa's history is spattered with instances of violence. Inmates and wardens have been shot to death inside the prison, and corruption charges have resulted in the arrest or dismissal of hundreds of guards.

Officials are piecing together what happened Sunday and yesterday. They confirmed that the casualties included 13 wounded inmates who were taken to the city's General Hospital and 12 who were being treated at the prison's infirmary.

The violence exploded while about 1,200 relatives of inmates were inside the prison for a regular visiting day.

Prison troubles April 2004: Nine La Mesa state prison workers, including the former prison director and the former prison guard commander, are arrested in connection with the escape of five inmates. Some of the escapees are suspected of ties to drug traffickers. August 2002: Police dismantle the outlaw community within La Mesa nicknamed “El Pueblito” that included apartments and food stands. March 1995: Two inmates are accused of masterminding the slaying of the prison's warden outside his home. October 1993: Three prisoners are wounded in a prison shootout. July 1992: Three inmates are shot to death by other inmates. The warden resigns. Half a dozen escapes occurred during his nine-month tenure. June 1978: Inmates ambush and kill the warden and three guards in the central prison yard. U-T Multimedia: For a video about the riot at La Mesa prison, go to uniontrib.com/more/tjriot

At one point, about 600 were held hostage, but all were released by midnight Sunday, to authorities. Eight prison officers held hostage also were freed unharmed.

Three inmates tried to escape amid the confusion but were recaptured, Baja California justice officials said.

Officials said the disturbance appears to be linked to a routine contraband check Saturday morning in which prison guards confiscated marijuana, heroin and cellular phones from a cell.

A scuffle ensued, in which the 19-year-old, Israel Marquez Blanco, died. Family members said prisoners rioted to demand justice for Marquez's death.

About 2 p.m. Sunday, inmates started making noise by hitting on cell walls and doors. A group of prisoners overpowered their guards and took their keys, then went to other buildings and released other inmates, officials said.

Some of them climbed onto the roofs of prison buildings, where they threw rocks and other debris at the residential areas surrounding the penitentiary. They set vehicles afire by tossing burning clothing onto them. The prison is just a few miles from downtown Tijuana in a mixed residential and commercial area.

Maria Salazar was visiting her husband when she said word began to spread that prison guards had tortured and killed an inmate.

“It was a tipping point,” she said, still reeling from the pepper spray from the night before. Salazar said she feared for her life.

“Bullets were flying everywhere, and there were a lot of kids and older people visiting,” she said. “It was horrible.”

At 2 a.m. yesterday, 12 hours after the riot began, a combined force of police and Mexican soldiers stormed La Mesa and took control.

By daylight yesterday, more than 2,000 people were gathered outside the prison walls for word on their relatives. But little or no information was available as the prison appeared to be locked down.

During the day, family members engaged in shouting matches with guards who were in rundown towers with broken windows. Some of the prison walls were blackened by the fires set the night before.

Overcrowding has been a major issue at the prison, which is designed to hold about 5,000 inmates. At the time of the riot, there were about 8,100 prisoners, according to official figures.

The head of the Baja California Human Rights Commission, Francisco Javier Sanchez Corona, said in some instances at the prison, 20 people are being held in one 10-by-13-foot cell. “They just want to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said.

An American-born nun who has ministered to La Mesa inmates since 1977 spent 40 minutes inside the prison yesterday morning. She was stunned by the level of destruction and the number of prisoners she said showed signs of physical abuse.

“In my 31 years of working here, I have never seen such destruction,” said Sister Antonia Brenner, known among the inmates as Mother Antonia. “An earthquake of violence, of hate, of grudges happened here.”

The riot is but the latest violent chapter in the saga of the penitentiary known to locals as “la peni,” a place where the inmates at times seem to have more power – and more firepower – than the men guarding them.

It caught the attention of Americans in 1978, when the warden and three guards were gunned down by inmates in the prison yard. When another prison director refused a bribe to let two convicted killers escape in 1995, they took out a contract on the director, who was gunned down in front of his home.

Corruption also has been a part of life at the prison.

Getting guns inside the walls, usually by bribing guards, has been done with relative ease. At least one prison killing was committed by an inmate armed with an Uzi. Another inmate was found dead in his cell while wearing a bulletproof vest.

But La Mesa may best be known for the mini-city known as “El Pueblito” that thrived inside the walls until 2002.

It included tiny apartments, shops, restaurants and mini-markets, all built and controlled by the inmates. In some cases, prisoners' wives lived with them and gave birth to children, whom they raised inside the walls.

El Pueblito had its own class structure, defined by money. Wealthy drug dealers had carpeting and tile, stereo systems and kitchens, even Jacuzzis. At least one had a two-story abode with a steel spiral staircase and a 6-foot satellite TV dish antenna on the roof. They could have Chinese or Italian food delivered to them from nearby restaurants. They had access to drugs and alcohol.

For an inmate without money, the best he could hope for was barely edible prison food, a blanket with which to sleep on the bare ground and the clothes on his back. Inmates and guards alike extorted prisoners in return for protection and access to minimal supplies.

True cellblocks were built in the late 1990s, but overcrowding has persisted.

Omar Millán González is a contributor to the Union-Tribune's Spanish-language newspaper, Enlace.

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Hiram Soto: (619) 293-2027; hiram.soto@uniontrib.com