Tijuana Prison Tense After Warden’s Slaying

Unrest erupted at the state penitentiary Friday as the Baja California attorney general accused two inmates of masterminding the slaying this week of the troubled facility’s warden.

By nightfall, after a tense afternoon, authorities declared the situation at La Mesa prison under control.

Officials reported no injuries and no hostages taken and said the confrontation never escalated to a riot. However, reports circulated in Tijuana of rebellious inmates and a fire inside the prison, and dozens of police cars surrounded the facility.

Antonio Garcia Sanchez, Baja California human rights prosecutor, emerged Friday evening from the prison--home to about 2,500 people, including inmates and their families--and said matters were normal and regular.

The warden’s killing was the latest high-profile slaying to rock this border city, where Luis Donaldo Colosio, then the leading contender for the Mexican presidency, was shot down a year ago in an assassination that stunned the nation.

The unrest began, authorities said, after Baja California Atty. Gen. Pedro Raul Vidal Rosas accused two high-profile inmates of ordering the murder of the warden, Jorge Alberto Duarte Castillo. Two assailants ambushed the warden outside his home late Wednesday, and shot him dead as one of his two young boys watched, authorities said.

A recently released inmate, Jorge Humberto Rodriguez Peralta, 22, has been captured and accused in the slaying. The other suspect remains at large.

One of the two was allegedly paid 2,000 pesos--slightly more than $300 at current exchange rates--to kill the warden.

The alleged plotters--Antonio Vera Palestina and Victoriano Medina Moreno, both convicted assassins--organized the killing from their cells, the attorney general told reporters after the warden’s funeral Friday. Baja Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel was also at the news conference, which was interrupted when word of the unrest prompted authorities and reporters to rush to the penitentiary.

The investigation has revealed that the warden recently refused a $40,000 bribe to aid the escape of six inmates, according to the attorney general, who indicated the warden’s refusal--and his subsequent decision to increase security at the facility--may have set the stage for his slaying.

The two accused masterminds are serving lengthy prison terms after being convicted of murder in the 1988 slaying of a well-known Tijuana newspaper columnist, Hector Felix Miranda. Vera Palestina is believed to have strong links to the Mexican underworld where many believe narcotics dollars and political power converge.

The precise cause of the unrest remains murky, although officials linked the trouble directly to Vera Palestina.

Authorities said that Vera Palestina feared being transferred to another facility and sought to speak with prison officials. A police statement indicated that a conflict may have broken out among two rival groups at the prison, one supportive of Vera Palestina.

Alvarez reported from Tijuana and Rotella from Mexico City. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Los Angeles contributed to this report.