Mexico Institute in the News: Mexico Prison Riot Leaves 44 Dead
Prisoners in an overcrowded prison in Nuevo Leon break into a deadly riot, possibly as part of a feud between the Zeta and Gulf cartels.
The Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2012, Open Security, March 27, 2012
Fighting between two warring drug cartels appears to have killed 44 inmates in what may be Mexico's deadliest prison riot...
...Since President Felipe Calderon declared war against Mexico's drug traffickers in 2006, Mexican prisons have often become deadly battlefields for members of rival drug gangs captured by security forces...
...The prison, built to house some 1,700 inmates is jammed full with some 2,700 prisoners...
..."Prison reform is a pending agenda item in Mexico,"
says Eric Olson, at the Mexico Institute at Washington's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
"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."...
About the Author
Eric L. Olson
Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, Seattle International Foundation
Mexico Institute
The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute. Read more
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
