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| Rioting inmates in Argentina take 76 hostages |
| By AFP |
| Published: 02/11/2005 |
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Hundreds of rioting convicts in the city of Cordoba, Argentina, are holding a prison warden and 75 people hostage, threatening to throw some of them off the roof, while two inmates and a police officer were killed in a jail-break attempt, officials said early on Friday. Cordoba's maximum-security prison of San Martin, 700km north-west of Buenos Aires, was surrounded by more than 1,000 police and army troops, as well as inmates' relatives, as officials negotiated with riot leaders who are demanding reduced sentences and improvements in their living conditions. Television images showed dozens of armed inmates atop the prison roof threatening to throw some prison guards to the pavement below. One officer, stripped to the waist, was being held as knives sliced across his arms and legs. Smoke was billowing from inside the jail. Provincial Penitentiary Service director Graciela Lucientes de Funes told reporters the criminals are also threatening to slash the throat of prison warden Emilio Corso. Cordoba province police chief Jorge Rodriguez said that in addition to Corso, the hostages include 25 prison guards and 50 people, mostly women and children, who were visiting the prison when the riot broke out. Rodriguez said that "a large number" of the 1,800 inmates in the prison want to end the riot and free the hostages, but they are being led by a group serving life "who want their sentences commuted and with whom its impossible to negotiate." Argentine President Nestor Kirchner met with his Cabinet chief, Alberto Fernandez, in Buenos Aires late on Thursday to assess the situation. |
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