A prison riot left at least 10 people dead, including nine inmates and one family member, after prisoners reportedly opened fire during visiting hours.
What was a routine visiting day at a Mexican prison, descended into carnage on Thursday morning, claiming at least 10 lives.
The incident unfolded at a facility in Sinaloa, the violence-stricken state in northwestern Mexico, according to state authorities.
The bloodshed erupted at El Castillo Penitentiary in the coastal city of Mazatlan. Sinaloa’s Public Security Secretariat confirmed on X that nine prisoners and one visiting family member perished in the violence, while 16 inmates required hospital treatment for injuries sustained.
Local media reported that inmates used guns during the fight. The trigger for the riot remains unclear at this stage, as does the number of the 1,800 inmates who participated.
In the aftermath, military personnel, National Guard troops, naval forces and state security officers stormed the facility to re-establish control.
Mexico’s federal security cabinet confirmed the prison, which holds 1,800 inmates, is now “under control.”
Experts point to severe overcrowding, fuelled partly by pretrial detention practices – which keep thousands incarcerated without conviction – coupled with inadequate staffing levels, as key drivers of corruption and violence within the prison system.
Last May, violence erupted at a Culiacan prison, Sinaloa’s capital, resulting in seven inmate deaths and one injury.Mexico operates 276 correctional facilities, comprising 14 federal penitentiaries and 249 state institutions.
Official statistics show the prison population stood at 261,388 people as of February.Violence broke out in Sinaloa in September 2024 during an internal power battle between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, setting the sons of convicted former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, known as “Los Chapitos,” against supporters of another imprisoned former cartel leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Thursday’s riot comes as Mexico’s government faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration to take tougher action against cartels.Throwback to Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, dancing with a lady at a garden party in Nairobi on July 1, 1964
