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1993-03-07
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03/05/1993
MEXICO CITY (UPI) -- Some 40 men armed with military-style
assault rifles broke into a prison in the Pacific Coast state of
Michoacan, shot dead two guards in a brief battle and freed 28
prisoners, Mexican news reports said Friday.
Newspaper and television reports said the prisoners who escaped
from the penitentiary in the city of Tacambaro, 140 miles west of
the Mexican capital, were considered highly dangerous.
Michoacan state Attorney General Jesus Reynosa Garcia was quoted
as saying some 40 armed men arrived at the prison in several trucks
in the early hours of Thursday.
The attackers used one of the trucks to break down the main
entrance to the facility, opened fire on guards -- killing two --
then forced them to free 28 prisoners, news reports said. The
assailants were reportedly carrying AK-47 and other military-style
assault weapons.
The newspaper El Universal said one of the guards killed in the
attack, Jaime Ramirez Gomez, was only 16 years old.
Excelsior, also a Mexico-City based daily, said the phones lines
to the penitentiary had been cut prior to the attack. It said the
operation was apparently intended to liberate Jose Manuel Ortiz, a
convicted killer who escaped with the other 27 inmates.
There were no immediate reports that any of the escaped prisoners
or their liberators had been caught by Mexican authorities.
The sorry state of Mexican prisons has been well documented by
the government's own National Human Rights Commission, which among
other things, has criticized overpopulation, poorly trained guards
and the coddling of prisoners who can afford to pay for it.