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Brazil & Southern Cone - January 2017 (ISSN 1741-4431)

State buckles under weight of security crisis

The Brazilian government has come under fire for being slow to respond to an acute security crisis currently being played out in the country’s prisons. On 1-2 January, 56 inmates were killed during riots at the Complexo Penitenciário Anísio Jobim (Compaj) prison located in the city of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state. Scarcely a week later, another riot rippled through the Penitenciária Agrícola de Monte Cristo prison in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, in which 33 inmates were killed. Another 26 inmates died during riots at the Alcaçuz prison in Natal the capital of Rio Grande do Norte, on 14-15 January. These deadly riots and other minor uprisings in Brazilian prisons, which have all been attributed to feuding among rival local criminal gangs, have left a toll of 135 deaths in the first two weeks of 2017.

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