Page 12 - aruba-today-20190413

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 13 april 2019
Collapse of buildings in Rio kills 2 in militia-run area

By PETER PRENGAMAN massive flooding Friday
C.H. GARDINER and killed at least 10 peo-
Associated Press ple. Mud from the flooding
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — still lined the streets.
Firefighters on Friday dug Following a similar down-
through rubble in search pour in February, Mayor
of survivors after two con- Crivella told daily TV Globo
demned buildings col- that authorities had cleared
lapsed in Rio de Janeiro, militias from the area, and
killing at least three people the city was working to im-
and leaving another 10 in- prove the drainage system.
jured. Residents told the AP Friday
The collapse of the four- that militia members never
story buildings underscored left the area and were still
the shoddy infrastructure charging for many ba-
that plagues Latin Ameri- sic services. The residents
ca’s largest nation and put asked that their names not
a spotlight on illegal militias be used for fear of retribu-
that control large swaths tion. It wasn’t immediately
of Rio, including the area clear how many people
where the buildings stood. were inside when the build-
A statement from the office ings fell. A spokesman for
of Rio Mayor Marcelo Criv- firefighters told the AP that
ella said the area was run Firefighters try to find victims amid the debris of two buildings that collapsed in Muzema two bodies had been re-
by militias and the buildings neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, April 12, 2019. covered from the buildings
did not have permits. Au- Associated Press and the area was being
thorities were only able to not. Today, however, such safety checks. Last year, Brazilian real estate regula- cordoned off to search.
reach the area while being groups are full-fledged posts on social media ad- tion agency CRECI told The In keeping with agency
accompanied by police in criminal organizations vertised units in the build- Associated Press that it has protocol, the spokesman
November, when they con- which are often consid- ings that collapsed. The no registration of a compa- asked his name not be
demned the buildings, ac- ered the most severe secu- posts made clear that they ny with that name. used.
cording to the statement. rity threat in Rio. were not legal, but said the An investigation last year A third person identified as
Militias, which are made up In a practice called “grila- apartments were “beauti- by Brazilian news agency O Claudio Rodrigues, 41, was
of former firefighters, po- gem,” militias often take ful investments” with eleva- Globo flagged Imobilaria pulled from the rubble but
lice and soldiers, charge control of public land and tors, round-the-clock se- Muzema as being respon- died at the hospital from
residents for basic servic- build illegal housing to rent curity and easy access to sible for selling properties injuries sustained in the col-
es in areas they control. informally. Many Brazilians public transportation. built illegally by militias. lapse, according to Brazil-
When they began forming choose to live in the resi- The social media posts The two buildings that col- ian newspaper O Dia. The
decades ago, many saw dences because the prices came from users who lapsed Friday were in a paper reported that Ro-
them as a force for good are cheaper than legally claimed to work for a real part of the city that also drigues’ wife and daugh-
because they provided se- registered buildings, but estate company called was particularly hard hit by ter were also injured but
curity that the state could there are no regulations or Imobiliaria Muzema. The heavy rains that caused alive.q

Mexican prisons still dirty but less dangerous and crowded

Associated Press in prison on pre-trial deten- sion to close the Islas Marias
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex- tion, a practice that had penal colony, noting the
ico’s state and federal been reserved only for the island facility was the high-
prison systems are under- most serious crimes. est-rated among all federal
staffed and dirty, but are The head of the rights com- prisons. The last 652 inmates
no longer so dangerous mission, Luis Gonzalez Per- were transferred off the is-
and overcrowded, accord- ez, predicted that would land, located 70 miles (110
ing to a report released swell the prison population, kilometers) off the Pacific
Thursday. The governmen- and that the construction coast of Nayarit state, in
tal National Human Rights of new prisons hadn’t kept February. The penal colo-
Commission says that 84 up with the predicted in- ny, the last of its type in the
percent of the 165 state crease. “The risk is that the hemisphere, will be turned
prisons inspected have in- prison population is going into an environmental edu-
sufficient staff, 76 percent to grow strongly, that’s the cation center.
don’t adequately separate In this April 1, 2018 file photo, state police patrol outside La risk and we haven’t solved The island’s low-risk popu-
convicted inmates from Toma prison in Amatlan de los Reyes, Veracruz state, Mexico, it,” said Gonzalez Perez. lation, lack of walls in most
people awaiting trial, and after authorities said that six police officers died from smoke “That is why, when mea- places and greater lib-
72 percent had problems inhalation when prisoners started a fire while resisting an effort to sures are taken, they have erty for inmates made it a
with hygiene.But prison ri- transfer dangerous inmates out of the prison. to be integrally planned.” good place for inmates to
ots and fights fell to 892 in Associated Press Inmates control at least get ready for release. But
2018, down from 1,043 in ported at 34 percent of seriously overcrowded. some activities at 45 per- the costs associated with
2017. And killings inside pris- state prisons and none of However, Mexico’s Con- cent of state prisons and maintaining the remote
ons fell from 104 in 2017 to the 21 federal prisons. That gress recently approved extort other inmates at 40 island prison were much
31 in 2018. marked progress for prisons reforms that would require percent. The commission higher than other mainland
Overcrowding was re- that had once often been more people to spend time criticized this year’s deci- prisons.q