The exterior of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute of Tuluá.RR SS
Prisoners in a prison in Colombia caused a fire that has so far left 49 dead and 30 injured.
The incident occurred in the early hours of this Tuesday in a prison in Tuluá, in the department of Valle del Cauca, in the southwest of the country.
The emergency has already been controlled by the municipal firefighters, according to the authorities.
The tragedy apparently began with a brawl that turned into a riot in which some inmates set their mattresses on fire, sparking a fire that spread through much of the medium-security prison.
The director of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec), General Tito Castellanos, told W Radio that the tragedy occurred in pavilion eight, “with an unfortunate result of 49 people dying from the fire and 30 more injured by the conflagration. ”.
The Tuluá prison houses 1,267 inmates, added the Inpec director.
According to the first versions, the fire started after one in the morning and although the Tuluá firefighters arrived quickly to control the fire, many of the victims died of smoke inhalation.
"There was a call at almost 1:20 in the morning about a possible riot (...) It is verified that there was a burning of many mattresses, and so far about 50 people have been transferred to care centers," he told Blu Radio the spokesman for the Tuluá firefighters, Marco Antonio Orozco.
Colombian President Iván Duque, who is on a working visit to Portugal, also lamented the tragedy and expressed his solidarity with the families of the victims.
Duque said on his Twitter account that he is in contact with the director of Inpec and gave "instructions to carry out investigations to clarify this terrible situation."
Tuluá is in the center of Valle del Cauca, 92 kilometers from Cali, the regional capital.
Likewise, the president-elect, Gustavo Petro, assured that: "The Colombian state has viewed prison as a space for revenge and not for rehabilitation."
In addition, he assured that "what happened in Tulua, such as the massacre in La Modelo, forces a complete rethinking of prison policy in the face of the humanization of prison and the dignity of the prisoner."
Petro refers to what happened in 2020 at La Modelo prison in Bogotá, where inmates protested to request protection measures against covid-19, where 24 inmates died and more than 100 people were injured.
The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, assured that attention is being paid to the victims of this unfortunate tragedy.
"Humanitarian management and intermediation is being carried out for the immediate attention of the wounded."
The pertinent investigations are already being carried out to clarify the facts, the Colombian Minister of Justice, Wilson Ruiz Orejuela, stated on his Twitter account: “My solidarity with the families of the victims of the Tuluá prison, Valle del Cauca, who lost life after a riot that caused a fire at dawn”.
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