Two inmates died and six others were wounded after a fight broke out among prisoners at a facility in Fortaleza, Samaná province, in the northeast of the Dominican Republic, according to the Directorate General of Prison and Corrections Services (DGSPC) on Tuesday.
The clash began on Monday night when an inmate identified as Montero, who was among those killed, locked 13 prisoners in a cell with the help of two other inmates and attacked them with blunt objects, knives, and machetes, as stated in a release from the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR).
The confrontation reportedly stemmed from a personal dispute between Montero and another deceased inmate named Olivares, tied to a supposed video incident, which affected the rest of the cellmates as well. The two men who died had sentences of 20 years for murder. The third fatality was charged with racketeering and homicide and was held in pretrial detention. The DGSPC awaits autopsy results being conducted by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif).
Members of the Army responsible for guarding the facility called emergency services when the incident was detected and when several inmates were found with cut wounds. Those injured were transported to Doctor Leopoldo Pou Hospital in the city, according to the department notice. This incident in the Dominican Republic follows a March fire at the National Penitentiary of La Victoria, the country’s largest and most populated prison, which left 11 dead.
As a result of the fire, authorities relocated 400 inmates to other correctional centers, while another 1,300 were moved to unaffected areas within La Victoria Prison, a complex built in the 1950s. A recent report by the National Public Defense Office indicated that La Victoria housed 7,625 inmates at the time, far exceeding its capacity of about 2,103 inmates.