UN ask Mexico for ‘exhaustive’ probe into deadly prison riot

By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY

The United Nations on Monday asked Mexican authorities to conduct an “impartial and exhaustive” investigation into a recent deadly prison riot in the northern city of Monterrey.

The organization’s torture representative, Juan Mendez, demanded Mexico’s government identify detainees implicated in the carnage and to formally establish the “legal responsibilities” of prison authorities in the melee that killed 49 inmates and injured 12 others.

Mendez said the government must also guarantee victims’ families to know what happened to their relatives and that they should be provided with reparations.

Mendez said in 2014 he observed ‘’horrible conditions and lax of rules’’ in Mexican prisons that allowed prisoners to take control of jails.

Authorities in Nuevo Leon state, where the riot last week occurred, said late Sunday that they found “luxury cells equipped with lounge rooms, mini fridges, air conditioners, televisions and hot tubs.”

“We knew about all the irregularities that existed, arbitrary acts and abuses’’, said Gen. Cuauhtemoc Antunez, the state’s security secretary, who did not specify how long the violations lasted or who may have allowed them to occur.

The riot exploded last Thursday between two rival drug cartels. And some detainees set on fire a food storage room.

The governor of Nuevo Leon said 60 hammers and a large array of knives were used in the melee.

The prison director, superintendent and at least one guard have all been arrested and charged with murder.