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Prison inmates in Brazil stabbed to death in front of visiting family members; at least 55 dead
Marina Lopes
15:47, May 29 2019
Brazilian authorities were making plans to move inmates around the South American country's overcrowded prison system after at least 55 were strangled or stabbed to death Sunday and Monday in fights at four facilities.
"On our way," Justice Minister Sergio Moro tweeted on Tuesday. "We will also make spots available in federal prisons to transfer the leaders involved in these massacres."
The killings, which appear to stem from a power struggle within the country's third-most powerful gang, the Northern Family, began Sunday when inmates at the Anisio Jobim penitentiary complex in Brazil's northwestern Amazonas state stabbed rivals with sharpened toothbrushes and choked them to death in front of visiting family members.
Forty more inmates were killed in three other Amazonas state prisons on Monday. Local officials, worried that the clashes could spread, asked authorities to transfer gang leaders to federal prisons.
More:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/113083820/prison-inmates-in-brazil-stabbed-to-death-in-front-of-visiting-family-members-at-least-55-dead