On Sunday, an armed attack on a state jail in the Mexican border city of Juarez resulted in at least 14 fatalities and 13 injuries.
Around 7 a.m., assailants arrived at the Cereso state jail in armed cars, according to the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office, and started shooting at the guards. Before the Mexican army and police took back control of the prison at noon, the prosecutor’s office reported that 10 guards and three prisoners had been killed. During the incident, at least 24 convicts managed to escape.
Cruz Perez Cuellar, the mayor of Juarez, said that during a police chase and gunfire, five persons were detained and three alleged assailants were murdered. After breaking out of prison, some convicts allegedly stole vehicles from public parking lots.
One of the riskiest prisons in all of Latin America is the Cereso state prison. According to government officials, it is run by a gang that has directed attacks in Juarez from within the prison. Rival gangs were blamed for the attack on Sunday, which is a recurring theme in the Mexican city that is plagued by ongoing bloodshed as drug cartels contend for control of the vital border town just south of El Paso, Texas.
Authorities in Mexico have been put on “highest alert” as they look into who was responsible for the bloody prison break.
Following a jail riot in Ciudad Juarez last year, there was a prison attack on New Year’s Day. In August, two drug gangs initiated a jail riot that resulted in shootings and instability in the city that later expanded to other villages, resulting in the deaths of eleven people. The two organizations in question were the Sinaloa and Los Mexicles cartels. Each has connections to notorious drug lord “El Chapo” Guzman.
