MEXICO CITY: More than 20 officials and prison guards have been arrested in Mexico over the gruesome discovery in a jail's garbage of a dead baby removed from its grave, authorities said Tuesday. Investigators are seeking to establish how the body was moved to the jail as well as the motives behind the unusual case, which has triggered shock and condemnation.
Born with congenital problems, the three-month-old baby died of a generalized infection on January 6 and was buried in Mexico City, prosecutors said. Days later, its body was found by an inmate looking for recyclable material in a garbage container in a prison in the state of Puebla around 130 kilometers (80 miles) away. "It's an atypical case and there's no record of one with similar characteristics," Ulises Lara, spokesman for the Mexico City prosecutor's office, told the press.
Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa said that 21 people had been arrested so far, after warrants were issued for 23 suspects including supervisors and guards at the prison. He branded those responsible "demonic" and also fired his security and penitentiary chiefs.
Mexican prisons are rife with crime and violence due to the presence of members of rival criminal gangs. On Tuesday clashes between inmates at a jail in the western state of Colima left eight people dead and seven injured, authorities said.