Seven prisoners, alleged extortionists, have been murdered, beheaded and dismembered at the Cantel Model Rehabilitation Farm, one of the 21 prisons in Guatemala that houses 2,252 inmates. This has been revealed by the spokesman for the Penitentiary System, Carlos Morales, who has confirmed that all the guards are fine while the prisoners themselves have retained other inmates.

The crimes occurred during a riot that has forced the Army and the Police riot police to enter the prison to regain control after several hours of chaos.. As reported by the General Subdirectorate of Police Operations, the murders are the consequence of a settling of scores between prisoners, after this afternoon the wife of one of the prisoners was killed with four bullets when she was in a vehicle in the area. 6 of Quetzaltenango, a short distance from the prison, located 200 kilometers from the capital of Guatemala.

Specifically, it was Anais del Carmen Gamboa Mendez, a Venezuelan national, wife of prisoner Carlos Roberto León Varillas, alias Juancho León Jr., who is deprived of liberty for the crime of illegal detention with aggravating circumstances and murder.. The last time this woman visited him in the prison was this Tuesday. As a consequence of the crime committed against her, the inmates rioted in the Cantel prison and took the Deputy Director of the prison, Luis Oswaldo Rivera García, hostage, who has already been released.. The inmates, who are retracted with sticks and white weapons are not ruled out, demanded the transfer of some inmates who are engaged in extortion and who are believed to be responsible for the murder of the woman.

In addition, according to the Police, inside the prison they even held four hostages in the Covid area.. According to the first data, among the deceased are prisoners who were deprived of liberty for the crimes of murder, illegal possession of a firearm, serious injuries, homicide, minor injuries, illicit association, among others.. The Quetzaltenango District Prosecutor's Office is processing the crime scene, where seven deceased people had been previously located.

For her part, the Principal Rapporteur of the National Office for the Prevention of Torture, Cecilia Barrios, has repudiated the violent acts and has called “urgently on the authorities to retake control of this center with actions that adhere to the protection of the Human Rights of the people who are detained”. At the same time, it has urged the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior to “establish a dialogue with the people deprived of liberty to immediately resume control.”. Meanwhile, this Ministry, which is in charge of prisons, has announced that the General Directorate of the Penitentiary System “will allocate its human and logistical resources to collaborate with the investigation and allow the clarification of the events that occurred.”

CRIMINAL HISTORY OF THE SUPPOSED INSTIGATOR OF THE MURDERS

The sentimental partner of the murdered woman and who would have triggered the riot is Carlos Roberto León Barillas, son of an alleged drug trafficker who was murdered in 2008 by a group of hitmen linked to the Mexican cartel Los Zetas. León Barillas was sentenced in 2017 to 105 years in prison for three murders committed to appropriate a farm valued at 5 million quetzales (555,000 euros).. According to a key witness in the trial, León Barillas was the leader of a criminal structure dedicated to drug trafficking, in which he worked as a guard, later as a pilot and finally as a drug trafficker.. According to the Prosecutor's investigation, the triple crime committed in 2013 was ordered by León Barillas and the three people died of suffocation.

The Prosecutor's Office is already processing the scene to identify with fingerprints the victims who have been scattered and dismembered through the corridors of the prison, as can be seen in several photographs that have come out. The Chief of Police Operations has detailed that at this time, 800 police agents are inside the prison and 600 elements of the Army outside. As with the rest of the prisons in Guatemala, the Cantel Penal Rehabilitation Farm suffers from almost 400 percent overcrowding, since it was created for 600 inmates and houses 2,252 of the more than 25,000 inmates in Guatemala..