On Monday, at least 40 detainees were found dead in four prisons in the northern state of Amazonas, and the toll could have been much heavier without the intervention of law enforcement officials, according to the authorities. In one of these establishments, a brawl between detainees had already killed 15 people on Sunday.
All prisoners killed on Monday "show signs of death by asphyxiation," the Public Security Secretariat of Amazonas said in a statement, apparently after strangulation. The prison administration then explained that the rapid intervention of the military police in the prisons had avoided "nearly 200 possible victims". As shock troops entered the cells, prisoners were strangling other detainees, the source said in a statement.
Brazil has the third largest prison population in the world
"As the troops advanced, (the detainees) were killing people by strangulation," said prison administration secretary Vinicius Almeida. "I have just spoken with the Minister (of Justice and Public Security) Sergio Moro, who sends a team of intervention in the prisons in Amazonas, so that he can help us in this moment of crisis", announced state governor Wilson Lima in a statement.
Three of the four prisons where the deaths occurred are very close to one another and not far from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas.
With nearly 727,000 detainees enumerated in 2016, Brazil has the third largest prison population in the world, often shaken by tragedies. The capacity of prisons is twice as small, about 368,000 places, in this country of nearly 210 million inhabitants which is one of the most violent in the world. Brazilian prisons are generally sordid and endemic violence between organized gangs. The crisis is not new and threatens to get worse as Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government promised a war on crime without announcing plans to build prisons.
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