30 dead in Bolivia prison violence

PanARMENIAN.Net - A battle among rival gangs in a prison in Bolivia's eastern lowlands Friday, August 23 left 30 people dead, many burned to death, as witnesses said inmates used propane gas tanks as flamethrowers. Among the dead was an 18-month-old infant, AP said.

The carnage in Palmasola maximum-security prison outside the regional capital of Santa Cruz also left 60 people injured, as inmates in one cell block attacked a neighboring cell block with knives, machetes and canisters of gas, said Interior Minister Carlos Romero.

Romero said the fight was over leadership and space in the prison. Inmates in one cell block knocked a hole in the wall separating the two groups, and opened the valves on the gas tanks, using them as flamethrowers, he said. The straw mattresses used by the inmates caught fire and the flames spread.

"The victims were trapped in the fire," Romero said. Palmasola is Bolivia's largest prison and officials are calling it the country's worst episode of prison violence.

Police and guards took several hours to put out the flames and control the violence, which took place in the prison wing that holds some of the prison's most dangerous prisoners. Most of the dead were on the second floor of the two-story block, Romero said.

Among the dead was a one-and-a-half year-old child, authorities said. The United Nations complained to Bolivia's government two months ago about its policy of allowing children through age 6 to live with parents in prisons.