2012 riot in Nuevo León, Mexico
The Apodaca prison riot occurred on 19 February 2012 at a prison in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico. Mexico City officials stated that at least 44 people were killed, with another twelve injured. The "Blog del Narco", a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously, reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 70 people. The fight was between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two drug cartels that operate in northeastern Mexico. The governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina, mentioned on 20 February 2012 that 30 inmates escaped from the prison during the riot. Four days later, however, the new figures of the fugitives went down to 29. On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office of Nuevo León confirmed that 37 prisoners had actually escaped on the day of the massacre. One of the fugitives, Óscar Manuel Bernal alias "La Araña" (The Spider), is considered by the Mexican authorities to be "extremely dangerous," and is believed to be the leader of Los Zetas in the municipality of Monterrey. Some other fugitives were also leaders in the organization.
The fight broke out around 2:00 am local time between inmates in one high security cell block and inmates of another security cell block. The guards of the prison allowed the Zeta members to surge from Cellblock C into Cellblock D and attack the Gulf Cartel members, who were sleeping. A guard was taken hostage during the melee, and mattresses were set on fire. Security personnel regained control of the prison by 6:00 am. Each cell block contained roughly 750 inmates, with members of rival drug cartels normally separated. Not all the prisoners were able to be counted, but by the time the dead prisoners were counted, the public security spokesperson speculated that the riot may have been started as a cover for a jail break. It was later confirmed that the riot and brawl "served as cover for a massive jailbreak" for the members of the Zetas drug cartel, who attacked the Gulf Cartel inmates.
According to "The Wall Street Journal" and "El Universal", the mass murder in Apodaca is the deadliest prison massacre in Mexico's history. "Milenio" news, in addition, mentioned that the prisons in the state of Nuevo León are plagued with violence, and that they are "under the control of the criminal groups" that operate in the area. The Apodaca prison was built to house 1,500 inmates, but had around 3,000 incarcerated at the time of the riot. After the split of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in early 2010, both groups have been battling for Monterrey and other areas in northeastern Mexico. And although no firearms were used in the fight between the two groups, the fact that their turf war goes as far as to Mexico's prison system only "emphasizes the bitterness of their rivalry." More importantly, however, the massacre, and the involvement of the prison guards in the escape, highlights the problems facing Mexico's—and the rest of Latin America's prison system.
Cause.
The prison riot is believed to have started when members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas clashed in the prison, using sharp-edged knives, stones, burning devices, and possibly firearms to kill rival cartel members. A prison spokesperson denied that firearms were involved. Some of the dead were strangled, thrown out of windows, stabbed, beheaded, hanged, bludgeoned, and crushed. An investigation was immediately launched into whether some of the 17 prison guards on duty colluded in the fight by unlocking the doors between the two wings of the prison. The prison director, the director of security, and the supervisor on duty were all detained for questioning. By the time the riot ended, 44 inmates who were reportedly members of the Gulf Cartel had been killed. Moreover, 30 inmates of the Los Zetas drug cartel were allowed to escape by the prison guards, and government sources reveal that the fugitives were high-ranking members in the organization, former police officers, or drug dealers.
Since President Felipe Calderón launched a military-led offensive against the cartels in Mexico in 2006, Mexican prisons have turned into battlefields for rival cartels, often leading to violent fights and frequent deaths. Many prisons are essentially run by one cartel or another. Eric Olson of the Mexico Institute at Wilson Center remarked, "The strategy has been to arrest a lot of people, but when you warehouse prisoners in prisons that are overcrowded and poorly managed, you are likely to have this kind of warfare breakout inside prisons." The Apodaca prison riot was the third riot to result in 20 or more deaths since October 2011. And according to the writers of InSight Crime, Mexico's prison system is slipping into anarchy, with inmates slaughtering each other at alarming rates; below is a quote from a newspaper, which sums up Mexico's penitentiary system and its problems: "Gang violence and break-outs are common in Mexico's notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system."
Investigation.
Fifteen days before the massacre, the family members of the fugitives claimed that the inmates had planned out the prison break. And as the investigations began, officials in northern Mexico reported that Los Zetas, with the help of several jail guards, helped the 30 fugitives escape from the prison. Four days after the incident, however, the figures went down to 29, because they had "recounted" one of the fugitives. Other sources mention that one of the 30 fugitives was actually killed in the massacre. The governor speculated that the jailbreak "was planned." And Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for the state of Nuevo León, does not discard the possibility that Óscar Manuel Bernal Soriano alias "La Araña" may have been the major leader in the riot and escape in the prison. The Attorney General of Mexico and the National Human Rights Commission are leading the investigations. Investigations indicate that the directors of the prison accepted between $40,000 and $15,000 pesos, and the guards around $6,000 pesos, in bribes each month. By 16 March 2012, it was confirmed that Óscar Manuel Bernal, alias "La Araña", was allowed to hold "parties with musical groups and women."
"El Universal" mentioned on 24 February 2012 that the family members of the prisoners claimed that the inmates had certain "privileges" inside the jail, like holding big parties, sexual orgies with prostitutes, and "special permissions" from the authorities of prison in Apodaca. The mother of one of the prisoners said that his son had claimed that the prison was "under the control of the "narcos" (drug traffickers)," and that they were often given permission "to leave the prison and come back after they had finished doing their business." Another witness claimed that the guards were also directly involved in the weekly escape of the prisoners and the "drug trafficking business" inside the prison walls. The prison, they said, was under the "law of Los Zetas," and it only cost the prisoners up to $40,000 Mexican pesos (about $3120 U.S. dollars) to operate freely inside the prison. In addition, it cost the Zetas more than $2.5 million pesos a year to bribe the officials in the prison.
"CNNMéxico" published an article exposing the number of prison fights in Mexico since the start of the Mexican Drug War in late 2006, as well as the figures behind each prison (population and capacity), and the number of federal prisons in the country.
Fraudulent numbers.
On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office Nuevo León corrected the figures of the inmates who managed to escape the prison during the massacre, confirming that the actual prisoners who escaped were 37—not 29—as previously stated. One of the fugitives was captured on 6 March 2012, however, so 36 prisoners were at large when this announcement was given. The state government attributed the "irregularities" of the previous reports to the manager of the prison, Jerónimo Miguel Andrés Martínez, who presented "fraudulent documents and misleading reports" the day of the massacre. In addition, two prisoners who were pronounced as fugitives on 19 February 2012 never escaped from the prison. The Attorney General's Office Nuevo León asserted that the new figures are definitive.
The Mexican authorities offer up to 12.4 million pesos for information leading to the arrests of the fugitives.
Aftermath.
The governor of Nuevo León mentioned that 30 inmates, reportedly from the criminal group Los Zetas, escaped from the prison with the "complicity of the prison authorities," and that 18 prison guards were being investigated on 20 February 2012. Nine of them confessed to have helped the prisoners escape, but 19 have been found guilty as of 21 February 2012. An investigation continues as to why the prison cells were opened, allowing the riot between the rival drug gangs. Mexican prisons have been notorious for being overpopulated, lacking adequate supervisors, and failing to meet prisoners' needs or prevent them from reoffending after release. Of the 44 killed, 35 have been identified. Rodrigo Medina is offering more than 10 million Mexican pesos (almost $800,000 U.S. dollars) for information leading to the arrest of the fugitives that escaped in the mass jailbreak.
During the prison riot, over 300 family members arrived at the scene. The families then demanded the authorities to hand in the bodies of their loved ones. Other family members, nonetheless, confronted the police forces after failing to obtain information of what had occurred. The National Human Rights Commission reported that 25 minors were in the prison during the deadly riot. The mayor of García, Nuevo León, Jaime Rodríguez, worries that the escape of Oscar Manuel Bernal Soriano alias "La Araña" (The Spider), a high-ranking Los Zetas leader, might bring reprisals from him and the cartel.
On 21 February 2012 the United Nations asked for the Mexican authorities to work "exhaustively and independently" to find those responsible for the massacre. In addition, they condemned the massacre and asked for the National Human Rights Commission to "monitor conditions of detention throughout Mexico." Moreover, Egidio Torre Cantú, the governor of the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, has agreed to search for the fugitives of the prison break in his state, too. As a result of the "crisis" in the prison systems of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, promised to begin a project to create 8 to 10 prisons by the end of his term, and reiterated that this project forms part of his "security strategy" to prevent Mexico from falling in the hands of the organized crime groups. That effort, he mentioned, has "never been done in the past 20 years in Mexico." Alejandro Poiré Romero, moreover, mentioned that there will be no more federal inmates in state prisons by the end of 2012, and recognized that that was one of the many "weaknesses" of the Mexican prison systems. On 24 February 2012 Jaime Castañeda Bravo, the Secretary of Public Security in Nuevo León was removed from office by the state government. Concrete walls were later installed around the prison in Apodaca to "elevate the security measures" of the area. In addition, the police forces of the city of Apodaca recruited former Mexican military officers to form part of their body. The state government of Nuevo León asked the Federal government of Mexico to take control of the prison in Apodaca on 24 February 2012, the same day 10 prisoners were found guilty of the massacre.
Although the events are not related, in the prison of Topo Chico, just north of Monterrey, 3 inmates were killed two days after the massacre in Apodaca.
Protests and later riots.
On 21 February 2012 the families of the inmates and the deceased prisoners protested and confronted the police forces outside the prison in Apodaca. In the heat of the moment, the families burned objects and threw rocks at the authorities. Inside the prison, riots continued after several inmates were being transported from the prison in Nuevo León to other prisons out-of-state. The Mexican military and the Fuerza Civil police forces guarded the area.
Anonymous' operation.
During the disturbances outside the prison, the hacker group Anonymous blocked the official page of the municipality of Apodaca as a "protest for the massacre."
Prisoners transfer.
After the massacre and disturbances in the prison in Apodaca, three high-ranking leaders of Los Zetas were transferred on 22 February 2012 to Puente Grande, a maximum security prison in Jalisco. There were 22 inmates injured after the prisoners' transfer triggered another riot. One of