From El Universal [2], Nov. 19:
At least three of 10 lawyers being held hostage by inmates were killed Saturday after police raided the prison in the state of Michoacán to rescue them, media reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the lawyers were killed by inmates or police during the raid which ended in a shoot-out.
El Universal and the government news agency Notimex reported that a prisoner was killed in addition to the three lawyers.
It was not immediately known if Mexican police had regained full control of the Mil Cumbres prison near the Michoacán state capital of Morelia, where the four inmates rebelled and took the group of lawyers hostage Friday night.
The Michoacán state attorney general´s office could not be reached for comment Saturday.
The convicts, accused of kidnapping and other crimes, rebelled after their attorneys told them they had been sentenced to long prison terms, according to the Public Security Secretariat.
The four prisoners on Saturday demanded money and an armored car to make their escape, prison officials said.
"They are demanding...that they not be followed when they escape," an official of the Michoacán police, who preferred to remain anonymous, told EFE, before the police raid.
Officials of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) said Saturday that negotiators sent from Mexico City tried to convince the rebellious inmates to abandon their plan and free the hostages.
"The negotiations are ongoing and we hope to conclude them successfully," said a PFP official by telephone from Morelia, early Saturday afternoon.
Nonetheless, radio stations in Michoacán and Mexico City said the inmates warned that if their demands were not met, "they won´t free anyone."
The prison was surrounded by some 500 PFP agents, the Army and the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI), an arm of the federal Attorney General´s Office.
The Mil Cumbres prison holds 2,000 prisoners, 60 who are considered highly dangerous, Notimex reported.
See our last posts on Mexico's human rights crisis [3] and Michoacan [4].
