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Sao Paulo Prison Guards Strike After New Wave of Slayings
In the fifth such killing in Brazil's Sao Paulo prison system occurring in less than 10 days, off-duty prison guard Paulo Gilberto de Araujo was gunned down by Brazil's most notorious organized crime group, the First Capital Command. The new wave of slayings by the gang began June 28, two days after police killed 13 gang members suspected of plotting contract hits against 60 prison guards meant to take place over a 10 day period. Directed by their leaders imprisoned in various Brazilian prisons, members planned to target guards before entering and after leaving their places of work during the off-shift hours. Prison guards in 21 prisons in Sao Paulo state went on strike to protest the killings, demanding increased hiring in prison security and permission to carry arms while off duty. The violence followed on the heels of May's bloody standoff between law enforcement, inmates and gang members that left 200 people dead. One such prison, Araraquara, which lies 250 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo, was nearly left in ruin from an uprising in June. Protests centred around overcrowding, which is not a surprising revelation given that most of the prison's 1,450 strong inmate population were forced to take up residence in the prison courtyard, a small structure only fit to contain 200 inmates, just under 14% of the entire pool of convicts. Other complaints included insufficient blankets for the cold, sleeping outdoors, living eight beds to a cell, and enduring an unmanageable excess of feces. Sao Paulo State Governor Claudio Lembo was not sympathetic, saying that inmates deserved to be locked up in a prison that they themselves destroyed. (Associated Press Newswires, 7 July 2006)
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