RIO DE JANERIO: The Brazilian government deployed 200 emergency personnel to secure two northern prisons after a series of massacres left 100 inmates dead last week.
Federal security personnel including troops, civilians and firefighters were sent to Amazonas and Roraima states yesterday, where the two biggest massacres took place, justice minister Alexandre de Moraes said.
The reinforcements will bolster security around the prisons as well as helping search for 114 prisoners still on the run after violence at a jail in Manaus, Amazonas on January 2.
Hundreds of inmates were relocated to other facilities after the disturbances, in which inmates beheaded and disemboweled their rivals.
At least four inmates were killed Sunday in one of those relocation facilities, in Manaus.
That sent the number of violent prison fatalities to 100 in just one week.
Much of the violence was blamed on drug gangs targeting their rivals in overcrowded facilities.