Ciudad Juárez is one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. On New Year’s Day, armed people stormed the detention center there and opened fire. As a result, several prisoners manage to escape. Already in August, the prison made the headlines because of an incident.
At least 14 people were killed when an armed commando attacked a prison in northern Mexico on Sunday. According to the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office, the attackers appeared in armored vehicles in front of the detention center in Ciudad Juárez on New Year’s morning and opened fire on the guards to allow inmates to escape.
At least 24 inmates managed to escape. When the attack began, crowds of people were waiting in front of the prison to visit their detained relatives on New Year’s Day. According to the prosecutor, four people were injured; the authorities initially spoke of 13 injuries.
Ten prison guards were among the 14 killed. Police and soldiers arrested four people, the prosecutor said. It was initially not clear whether those arrested were attackers or prisoners who had escaped. According to prosecutors, shortly before the attack on the prison, several police officers in the city were attacked. Four suspects were arrested and two others killed.
The city of Ciudad Juárez, with a population of 1.5 million, lies on the border with the USA and is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. For years, the place has suffered from the violence of drug cartels fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States. The prison there houses members of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel, who have been fighting for dominance in the city for more than 15 years.
The prison made headlines last year. Gang fights broke out in the prison in August. According to the police, two prisoners were killed. Subsequently, suspected gang members went through the city and killed nine people, including four employees of a radio station. “Innocent civilians were attacked as a kind of retaliatory measure,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said of the incident at the time.
