Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jan 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Susana Hayward, Knight Ridder

SIX WORKERS SHOT TO DEATH AT MEXICAN PRISON

MEXICO CITY -- Six employees of a maximum-security prison in the border 
city of Matamoros were found shot to death Thursday, the latest violence as 
the government struggles to control Mexico's penal system.

The bullet-riddled bodies were found around noon, but there were 
conflicting reports about whether some were found in the prison or outside, 
said Hector Fernando Vallejo Garcia, the police chief in Tamaulipas state, 
where the prison is located.

The shootings came two days after Mexican officials transferred several 
high-profile convicts to the Matamoros facility from another troubled 
prison, La Palma, just west of Mexico City.

Soldiers and federal agents raided La Palma last week in an effort to 
regain control of the prison from drug traffickers.

Among the prisoners transferred to Matamoros was Miguel Angel Caro 
Quintero, who is serving a 90-year sentence after being convicted in 
connection with the kidnapping and slaying of Drug Enforcement 
Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in 1985.

Mexican President Vicente Fox vowed to press ahead with efforts to clean up 
the nation's prison system. "We're going to establish order in federal 
prisons, decisively and strong-handed to assure we win this battle, and 
we'll prove it month to month, day by day," he told a Mexican television 
station.

Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said hundreds of soldiers and 
police agents had been sent to Matamoros to cordon off the prison. In a 
statement, Macedo's office identified the dead as a custodian and five 
"administrative workers."

The statement said gunmen loyal to Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the head of the 
so-called Gulf drug-trafficking cartel, were behind the Matamoros killings, 
probably in retaliation for last week's raid on La Palma.

Federal officials have been trying to clamp down on the prisons, which they 
believe imprisoned drug bosses are using to run their gangs and wage war on 
their business rivals. Last week, the head of Mexico's prison system 
resigned only hours before the raid on La Palma.

The problems at La Palma prison, including three recent slayings, have been 
linked to reported rivalries among Mexico's three largest drug cartels.

Television images showed soldiers closing off entrances to the Matamoros 
prison, much as they did at La Palma last week.

Authorities have said Cardenas and another drug trafficker, Benjamin 
Arellano Felix, head of the so-called Tijuana Cartel, have formed an 
alliance against a third drug band, the Juarez Cartel, led by Joaquin "El 
Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman's brother, Arturo, was slain at La Palma on New Year's Eve. Guzman 
escaped from another maximum-security prison on Jan. 19, 2001, and remains 
a fugitive.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl