Colombian head of the national prisons agency, on Tuesday said 49 inmates died during an overnight riot in a prison in the southwestern Colombian city of Tulua.
General Tito Castellanos, the head of the INPEC agency, told local Caracol Radio that 30 people were injured describing it as“ a tragic and disastrous event’’.
The Andean country said it would release thousands of prisoners amid the coronavirus epidemic in 2020, after inmates rioted in protest against crowded conditions and lack of services.
There are 132 prisons in Colombia, built to hold 37,000 people but in reality more than 122,000 people are behind bars.
The largest prisons in Bogota are “La Modelo” where prisoners on remand are held and “La Picota”, where sentenced prisoners and those that will be extradited will be held.
Due to overcrowding, prisoners are sometimes mixed together in these prisons regardless of their judicial situation. (Reuters/NAN)
