"Brazil Prison Revolt Ends, 5 dead" New York Times Syndicate August 27, 2014
RIO DE JANEIRO — A bloody prison uprising in southern Brazil that left at least five inmates dead at the hands of fellow prisoners, including two who were beheaded, ended Tuesday morning after negotiators said they had reached an agreement with the revolt’s leaders to transfer hundreds of inmates to other penitentiaries.
Although prison riots have become relatively frequent, the brutality of the rebellion at the prison in Cascavel, including photos of masked prisoners dangling hostages from the roof, underscored the bleak conditions often faced by the jailers and the jailed.
Cascavel is a city of about 300,000 people in a farming belt of Paraná state in southern Brazil.
The latest uprising erupted Sunday morning over complaints by inmates about the quality of the food and over accusations of physical abuse by the guards. It lasted about 45 hours and involved clashes among factions inside the prison and a standoff with security forces.
News photos showed dozens of masked prisoners on the roof, unfurling banners that declared allegiance to the First Capital Command, a prison gang with roots in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. The masked prisoners tied the hands of other inmates behind their backs, beat them, and held them aloft from the roof’s edge by their feet.
“Our best option was to negotiate,” said Elson Faxina, a state judicial spokesman, explaining that the authorities had agreed to alleviate conditions at the prison by transferring hundreds of inmates to other correctional centers.
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