MEXICO CITY — The worst prison riot in Mexico in years was not really a riot. It was mass murder.
Officials said Monday that it appears all 44 inmates stabbed and beaten to death at a prison in northern Mexico on Sunday were members of the Gulf Cartel crime syndicate. They were killed by members of Los Zetas, a sensationally violent group that appears to have staged the massacre, in part, as a diversion.
About 30 Zeta members escaped from the overcrowded Apodaca prison near Monterrey in the hours after the killings. Officials called the escapees “especially dangerous.”
What was initially characterized as a melee among rival gangs appears to have been an attack that was well planned and executed, followed by a successful getaway, accomplished with the help of the jailers.
The governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina, told reporters Monday that the prison’s director, three top officials and 18 guards are under investigation and may have aided in the escape.
The governor called the prison officials “a group of traitors” and said it appeared they were corrupted by the powerful Zeta syndicate.
The governor also used his news conference to complain that his state prisons are overcrowded with inmates facing federal charges for drug and weapons trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. He said that in Nuevo Leon state, 60 percent of all inmates are incarcerated for federal crimes.
Mexico is engaged in a prison building boom, and new guards are being trained by the U.S. government. But the handful of new maximum-security federal prisons cannot keep up with the flow of criminals.
