Brasilia – Some 28 cities in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in northeastern Brazil, have registered a series of attacks orchestrated by a criminal group since early Tuesday morning, with fires and shots against public offices, businesses and vehicles, authorities reported .
The state government works with the hypothesis that the riots were planned from inside the prisons, as a protest against the living conditions and the tightening of control measures in these institutions.
The cases began early Tuesday morning in some 19 cities, including the capital, Natal, and, despite the strengthening of security, they have expanded since yesterday to a total of 28, according to police sources quoted by the G1 news site.
Images disseminated by social networks and local media showed buses, trucks and other cars on fire, and police cars with bullet holes.
“The State is firm, working to restore normality to the people of Rio Grande do Norte,” Governor Fátima Bezerra told reporters.
“All the measures are already underway,” he added.
Some 220 police officers from the National Force were sent at dawn to assist the local forces, a number that may be increased “up to the amount deemed necessary,” Public Security Minister Flávio Dino said on Twitter.
The police reported two deaths and two injuries since the start of the excesses, according to G1.
One of the deceased is José Wilson da Silva Filho, 29 years old and head of the largest criminal faction in Rio Grande do Norte, who died on Wednesday when he clashed with police officers as they tried to arrest him, the force said in a statement.
“He was responsible for financing and distributing weapons for the group that carried out the attacks,” police said.
Some 30 people were arrested, according to a police report published by G1.
The violence is “a reaction of the so-called organized crime to the firm and assertive measures that the government of Rio Grande do Norte has adopted in the control of the prison system,” Governor Bezerra said in an interview on Tuesday with CNN.
Specifically, the inmates demand an improvement in the conditions in the prisons, such as televisions and intimate visits, said the secretary of state security, Francisco Canindé de Araújo to the UOL portal.
Human rights organizations point to a violation of the minimum conditions to which prisoners are entitled.
The National Mechanism to Prevent and Combat Torture (MNPCT), an autonomous body that oversees prisons, denounced “inhumane and degrading” detention conditions in prisons in Rio Grande do Norte.
In particular, he pointed to cases of torture and spoiled food, according to G1.
Bezerra said Wednesday afternoon that the local government will conduct a “deep investigation” into these allegations.
Some drug gangs are commanded by their leaders from overcrowded prisons in Brazil.
Riots and clashes between members of rival factions have left dozens dead in recent years.
Among the deadliest are the riots that occurred in 2017 in prisons in the states of Amazonas, Roraima and Rio Grande do Norte, in the northern and northeastern regions of the country, which left more than 100 prisoners dead in a period of one month.
In 2019, at least 55 inmates were killed in various prisons during two days of clashes in Amazonas.
Source: Ambito
