By Luis Perez
The Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico — Soldiers and federal police have regained control of Tijuana’s infamous La Mesa State Penitentiary after a second riot in three days left 19 people dead and 12 injured, officials said Thursday.
Relatives of the inmates say they rioted because they were not given food or water since the previous riot on Sunday, which led to the deaths of three inmates. Authorities blamed warring gangs, but said prison officials also are suspected of being involved in the second melee, and three top officials were suspended by the governor pending an investigation.
“We are investigating all of the officials at La Mesa penitentiary who could have been responsible or have been in cohorts with some of the inmates,” said Daniel de la Rosa, Baja California’s Public Safety Secretary.
De la Rosa told Mexico’s Televisa network that 200 inmates would be transferred to other state prisons to avoid more violence between prison gangs.
It was not immediately known whether prison guards or police were among the dead, and De la Rosa did not say how prison officials were allegedly involved in the second melee.
Baja California Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna said he has suspended La Mesa’s warden, Carlos Arturo Gonzales; the director overseeing state prisons, Miguel Angel Canett; and the deputy secretary of the state’s penitentiary system, Simona Camino.
All three are being investigated for any wrongdoing, he told Televisa.
Just across the U.S. border from San Diego, California, the prison has long been held up as the quintessential example of what’s wrong with Mexico’s corrupt and overcrowded prison system.
La Mesa prisoners gained worldwide notoriety after they built and ran their own city inside the penitentiary’s sprawling courtyard. Inmates bought and sold townhomes, ran shops, hired prostitutes and drug gangs ruled the village before federal police bulldozed it in 2002 under former President Vicente Fox.
Fox touted the destruction of the prisoners’ city as proof his government was serious about combatting corruption. But the overcrowded prison has held onto its reputation for violence and ungovernability.