Paraguay inmates hold prison guards hostage

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. (AA) – More than 70 inmates at a maximum security prison in Paraguay on Wednesday held two security guards hostage to avoid a mandatory search, local media reported.

During a daily check at 8 a.m. (GMT0400), five inmates in one cell-block at the Tacumbu prison in the country´s capital of Asuncion, attacked a pair of guards, the director of Penal Institutions Artemio Vera said.

“One officer was wounded in the head but we manage to rescue both immediately,” Vera told local media.

Two of the attackers are members of the First Capital Command, an alleged criminal organization from Brazil. The others are convicted of murder, the prison director said.

Despite the quick rescue of the guards within about 15 minutes after they were attacked, the riot lasted several hours.

Inmates closed cell doors and requested the presence of the media to avoid reprisals from guards while opening the doors.

Inmates charge mistreatment by security officers, overcrowding, power outages and poor food, according to Dante Leguizamon, commissioner of the National Mechanism to Prevent Torture.

Vera denied any mistreatment and insisted that officers will continue mandatory searches of the 4,000 inmates at the facility to confirm the status of prisoners.

There was no other violence reported in resolving the conflict, authorities said, according to the ABC Color newspaper.

Following the riot, officials conducted a search and confiscated knives, hammers, sticks and other weapons.

Las month, five inmates and the security chief at the prison were killed in a fire that was apparently caused by a faulty electrical system.

The fire affected the wing that houses elderly inmates and was where the security chief died trying to free 70 inmates.