Guard reported killed in Brazil prison revolt

A prison guard held hostage by inmates at a Rio de Janeiro detention centre was fatally shot as he tried to escape, according to a media report today.

Inmates held 22 more hostages as authorities tried to negotiate an end to the two-day prisoner revolt that left nine more prison staffers and inmates injured.

Authorities were not immediately available to confirm the death of the guard, which was reported on the Web site of the newspaper O Globo.

Earlier, Teresa Mendes, a spokeswoman for the Rio state prison system, said the inmates had shot at a prison guard, apparently as he tried to escape.

The wounded guard managed to reach the prison gate, but died on the way to a hospital, O Globo Online said.

The report added that the prisoners had tied another hostage to a gas canister and set fire to a corridor in the detention centre.

Earlier yesterday, government officials, including the vice secretary for human rights of Rio de Janeiro state, Paulo Bahia, and representatives of the Roman Catholic Church’s prison pastoral mission were inside the detention centre negotiating with the inmates, Ms Mendes said.

Inmates at the Benfica detention centre in the northern Rio district of Leopoldina seized guns and took guards and other prison workers hostage after police halted an escape attempt early on Saturday. Fourteen inmates managed to escape before police intervened.

On Saturday, authorities switched off electricity and cut off water supplies to the detention centre.

“Our strategy is to tire out the rebelling inmates while we negotiate with them,” said Renato Homem, spokesman for the Rio state Security Secretariat.

On Saturday morning, 14 inmates broke through the main gate of the detention centre. When police stopped more inmates from escaping, prisoners rose up grabbed the officers guns and took 26 guards and prison staff members hostage.

It was not clear how many of the around 900 inmates joined the uprising.

Ms Mendes said the rebelling inmates were members of the Red Command, Rio’s most notorious drug gang.

The police later recaptured three of the inmates who had escaped.

Two hostages were set free on Saturday afternoon in exchange for medical assistance for injured detainees, and one guard was freed yesterday morning, prison authorities said.

At the start of the rebellion, which involved shoot-outs between police and inmates, four policemen and five inmates were hurt, Ms Mendes said.

The five injured prisoners were taken to a hospital late Saturday. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

The Benfica detention centre is used to hold people awaiting trial.

Rebellions and breakouts are common in Brazilian prisons, often criticised by human rights groups for overcrowding and abuses.

During a riot in an overcrowded prison in the Amazon state of Rondonia in late April, inmates killed 14 fellow prisoners.