BOGOTA.- The penitentiary authority of Colombia declared a state of “prison emergency” throughout the country after several attacks against guards in local prisons were recorded, leaving one official dead, the Ministry of Justice reported.
“We have just unanimously approved in the board of directors of Inpec (National Penitentiary and Prison Institute) the declaration of the prison emergency,” the Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, informed the press, who highlighted the measure’s objective to reinforce security in the prisons
On Saturday, a guard was shot dead by two men who were riding a motorcycle outside the San Sebastián de Ternera prison, in Cartagena (north).
Another assault against jailers was recorded in the municipality of Jamundí (Valle del Cauca, southwest), with an undetermined number of Inpec guards injured, according to authorities. According to local media, it was a shooting attack.
Also, “threatening pamphlets were found in different prisons,” the ministry indicated in a bulletin.
In response to the attacks, a union of prison officials had threatened to go on strike if action was not taken.
“The prison emergency has two purposes: (…) to protect the life and integrity of prison guards and to completely eradicate extortion and corruption that comes” from prisons, Osuna explained.
One of the first measures will be, according to the minister, the assignment of “a specific prosecutor to (investigate) homicides against Inpec guards and another specific prosecutor for cases of prison extortion and corruption.”
On Sunday, Osuna had announced “police reinforcement around all the country’s prisons” and the support of the Military Forces to protect the life and freedom of the guards.
“Criminal structures have to know that the rule of law will prevail and we will subject them to compliance with the law,” he warned then.
The prison emergency in Colombia comes at a time when there is a serious security crisis in neighboring Ecuador, where around twenty criminal groups have displayed a violent display of power from prisons in retaliation for the government’s firm-handed policy to confront the onslaught of drug trafficking.
Colombia’s prison system houses more than 190,000 prisoners in seriously overcrowded conditions, according to official figures.
Source: EDITORIAL/AP
