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-foWZgLUHom.jpg "Photo of Uruguay prison inferno")
No fewer than six inmates died after a fire outbreak through their cell in a prison on the outskirts of Uruguay’s capital Montevideo, the interior ministry said Thursday.
The prison at Santiago Vazquez Penitentiary is the biggest in the Latin American.
As at the time of filing the report, the actual cause of the inferno was unknown.
Six charred bodies were found in a locked cell in an area where the other cells were all open, the ministry said.
It added that a prisoner from an adjoining cell was taken to the prison hospital for treatment.
Recall that the same inferno occurred in December 2023, which killed six people also.
Uruguay has the highest incarceration rate in Latin America and the tenth-highest in the world, according to state figures.
Four out of every thousand Uruguayans were behind bars in 2023, according to a recent report by the parliamentary prisons commissioner.
According to the prisons commissioner at Santiago Vazquez Penitentiary, “lack of opportunities for rehabilitation and integration” was leading to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of the prisoners.
AFP
