Warden of Mexican prison where 49 died is arrested

The warden of the Topo Chico penitentiary in the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey, where 49 inmates died and 12 others were wounded in a riot last week, has been arrested on manslaughter and abuse of authority charges, prosecutors said.

Gregoria Salazar Robles was arrested along with two other prison officials, Jesus Fernando Dominguez Jaramillo, who served as deputy warden for administration, and Jose Reyes Hernandez Aguilar, a guard, Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Roberto Flores Treviño said in a statement.

Dominguez Jaramillo faces manslaughter and abuse of authority charges, while Hernandez Aguilar was charged only with manslaughter, Flores Treviño said.

All three prison officials were arraigned on Saturday, the Nuevo Leon AG said.

Five of the nine dead inmates previously listed as unidentified have been identified, with the bodies of two of the men released to relatives, Flores Treviño said.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Jaime “El Bronco” Rodriguez Calderon said last Thursday that the riot was caused by a fight involving groups of inmates led by Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu and Juan Pedro Salvador Saldivar Farias.

Hernandez, whom authorities identified as a leader of the Gulf cartel, presumably controlled one section of the correctional facility.

Officials identified Saldivar as a member of the rival Los Zetas drug cartel.

Founded by deserters from an elite Mexican special forces unit, Los Zetas began their criminal career as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel.

But in March 2010 they broke with that outfit to go into business for themselves and have engaged in brutal turf battles with the Gulf organization and carried out some of Mexico’s most notorious acts of violence in their quest for territory.

The fight occurred in Topo Chico’s C2 and C3 cell blocks, where inmates armed with shanks, bottles, bats and sticks fought after setting fire to the food storage area, and the blaze spread to the cells housing inmates.

The Topo Chico prison riot, one of the deadliest in the past 30 years in Mexico, was brought under control at 1:20 a.m. Thursday, thanks to the intervention of army soldiers, marines and the Federal Police.

Topo Chico is one of Nuevo Leon’s oldest penitentiaries and houses around 3,800 inmates, according to Rodriguez, who said the victims’ names would be released after they had been fully identified.