Reuters: By Lizbeth Diaz. MEXICO CITY - Six out of 10 Mexican prisons are "self-governed" by prison gangs or drug cartels, according to a report issued Monday by the country's human rights commission.
Commission representative Andres Aguirre said at a news conference that Mexico's prisons also are plagued by overcrowding, a shortage of guards and corrupt employees who sometimes help with breakouts.
Aguirre said 60 percent of the country's 430 prisons or jails are controlled by criminal elements.
He added that the escape of 521 inmates over 14 incidents since 2010 - often with the help of corrupt prison officials - constitutes a grave problem for the country.
Earlier this month, more than 130 inmates escaped from a prison near the U.S. border in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, one of numerous mass breakouts tied to organized crime in the past few years. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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