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posted by jade
another headline possibity
Police search Brazil prison for guns and corpses
Last updated: 20 Feb 2001 14:18 GMT+00:00 (Reuters)
Reuters Photo
By Katherine Baldwin
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - More than 100 policemen gave entered Latin America's biggest penitentiary to continue a cell-by-cell search for weapons and corpses, after a wave of rebellions left at least 16 dead and 77 injured in prisons across Sao Paulo state.
Forty-eight hours after a powerful gang organised the most serious uprising ever in Brazil's prison system, officials reported calm in all 29 jails involved.
In the sprawling Carandiru complex in Sao Paulo where more than 7,000 inmates live, police said the armed troops were there to insure the safety of officials.
Meanwhile, dozens of inmates' wives and mothers remained tense outside the giant front gate, fearing a repeat of the 1992 police killings of 111 inmates during a rebellion there.
"I'm really scared that something worse could happen," said Maura da Silva Neves, 34, who has been camping outside the jail since last night. "I'm not leaving here until those shock troops get out."
It took prison officials and police 27 hours to put down the rebellion at Carandiru and the other prisons that involved in 20,000 convicts and more than 7,000 hostages.
State authorities say the riot was masterminded by the First Commando of the Capital (PCC) from within Carandiru using cell phones to contact other prisons. The gang demanded the return of 10 leaders transferred from Carandiru last week, which authorities refused to negotiate.
A preliminary search Monday turned up 12 cell phones and 260 knives and makeshift weapons. Only one firearm had been found thus far within Carandiru.
Tuesday's search, called "Operation Fine-Tooth Comb", will sweep through the crammed cells of Carandiru as prison officials check for more weapons and even bodies.
"I hope there are no more bodies but in a jail of 7,200 people it is very difficult to say what may have happened," said Senator Eduardo Suplicy, who spent the night sleeping on a sofa inside Carandiru.
Suplicy, who is the husband of Sao Paulo Mayor Marta Suplicy, and a group of other lawmakers and human rights activists await authorisation to enter the cells for their own inspection once the police search ends later on Tuesday.
The rebellion at Carandiru alone resulted in six dead, three shot by guards from a distance in a dramatic event that aired on national television on Sunday. The other three men were hanged or stabbed, apparently by other prisoners.