The Sabaneta prisonfire was a fire that occurred on 3 January 1994 in a prison in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in which at least 108 inmates died. It is the tragedy that caused the most deaths in the country's prison history. [1] [2]
It was estimated that the fire was set with gasoline by one of two warring groups in the prison and the gang "Los Goajiros" was blamed for it. However, Diario República reported that an internal source revealed that the day before an inmate had been decapitated and that soccer was played with his head, an event that had occurred before in December 1990; according to the source, the event infuriated the fellow inmates and they waited for the night to chain the exit doors and cause the fire. [3] [4] The fire demonstrated the shortcomings of the Venezuelan penal system and led to urgent decisions, including the intervention of the Sabaneta prison and criminal actions against the prison guards. [3]
Rolando Florián Feliz was considered the most dangerous drug trafficker ever convicted in the Dominican Republic, held in Najayo Penitentiary’s maximum security facility since May 1996. Florián Féliz was also convicted for the murder of Víctor Augusto Féliz, son of the reformist leader and ex- senator of Barahona, Augusto Féliz Matos.
LGBTQ people in the Dominican Republic do not possess the same legal protections as non-LGBTQ residents, and face social challenges that are not experienced by other people. While the Dominican Criminal Code does not expressly prohibit same-sex sexual relations or cross-dressing, it also does not address discrimination or harassment on the account of sexual orientation or gender identity, nor does it recognize same-sex unions in any form, whether it be marriage or partnerships. Households headed by same-sex couples are also not eligible for any of the same rights given to opposite-sex married couples, as same-sex marriage is constitutionally banned in the country.
Carabanchel Prison was a prison located in the Carabanchel neighbourhood of Madrid, Spain. It was opened in Francoist Spain in 1944 to house political prisoners after the Spanish Civil War. Carabanchel Prison was one of the biggest prisons in Europe until its closure in 1998 and its demolition in 2008.
The Apodaca prison riot occurred on 19 February 2012 at a prison in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico. Mexico City officials stated that at least 44 people were killed, with another twelve injured. The Blog del Narco, a blog that documents events and people of the Mexican Drug War anonymously, reported that the actual (unofficial) death toll may be more than 70 people. The fight was between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two drug cartels that operate in northeastern Mexico. The governor of Nuevo León, Rodrigo Medina, mentioned on 20 February 2012 that 30 inmates escaped from the prison during the riot. Four days later, however, the new figures of the fugitives went down to 29. On 16 March 2012, the Attorney General's Office of Nuevo León confirmed that 37 prisoners had actually escaped on the day of the massacre. One of the fugitives, Óscar Manuel Bernal alias La Araña, is considered by the Mexican authorities to be "extremely dangerous," and is believed to be the leader of Los Zetas in the municipality of Monterrey. Some other fugitives were also leaders in the organization.
The 2012 Buenos Aires rail disaster, also known as the Once Tragedy, occurred on 22 February 2012, when a train crashed at Once Station in the Balvanera neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Crime in Venezuela is widespread, with violent crimes such as murder and kidnapping increasing for several years. In 2014, the United Nations attributed crime to the poor political and economic environment in the country—which, at the time, had the second highest murder rate in the world. Rates of crime rapidly began to increase during the presidency of Hugo Chávez due to the institutional instability of his Bolivarian government, underfunding of police resources, and severe inequality. Chávez's government sought a cultural hegemony by promoting class conflict and social fragmentation, which in turn encouraged "criminal gangs to kill, kidnap, rob and extort". Upon Chávez's death in 2013, Venezuela was ranked the most insecure nation in the world by Gallup.
On 27 June 2017, there was an incident involving a police helicopter at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) and Interior Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela. Claiming to be a part of an anti-government coalition of military, police and civilians, the occupants of the helicopter allegedly launched several grenades and fired at the building, although no one was injured or killed. President Nicolás Maduro called the incident a "terrorist attack". The helicopter escaped and was found the next day in a rural area. On 15 January 2018, Óscar Pérez, the pilot and instigator of the incident, was killed during a military raid by the Venezuelan army that was met with accusations of extrajudicial killing.
The Maracaibo National Prison (Sabaneta Prison) was a notoriously violent prison in the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela in the state of Zulia. It was operated by the Ministry of Prison Systems, most recently under minister Iris Varela, from 1958-2013. Typical of a Venezuelan prison, it was severely overcrowded, with inadequate access to medical care, food, and clean water, and violence among prisoners was common. Gangs of inmates had control over the prison, and were led by a "pran" (inmate leader). The prison was closed after 55 years of operation due to government intervention and is now being converted into a museum.
On 28 March 2018, a fire broke out during a prison riot in the cells at the Carabobo state police headquarters in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. The fire killed at least 68 people and injured scores of others. The fire is one of the deadliest incidents ever in a Venezuelan prison since the 1994 Sabaneta prison fire, in which more than 100 inmates died.
The Puerto Hurraco massacre was a mass murder that occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, 26 August 1990 in Puerto Hurraco, a village in Benquerencia de la Serena, municipality in the Province of Badajoz,. It has 135 inhabitants. The perpetrators were the brothers Emilio and Antonio Izquierdo, members of the "Izquierdo family", who murdered 9 people in the streets of their hometown, some of them belonged to their rivals, the "Cabanillas family", and caused serious injuries to 12 others. The two then fled, but they were arrested during the next morning and eventually sentenced each to 684 years in prison. They died in prison, aged 72 and 74.
The El Paraíso stampede was a stampede of more than 500 people that occurred in the early-morning hours of 16 June 2018 at the El Paraíso Social Club, also known as Los Cotorros Club, in the El Paraíso urbanization in Caracas, Venezuela. The stampede was the result of a tear gas canister being detonated during a brawl among a group of students from different schools celebrating their proms. At least 19 people died, and according to official police reports, they were caused by asphyxia and polytrauma.
Martín Arzola Ortega, commonly referred to by his alias "El 53", was a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal group based in Jalisco. He worked under Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the alleged top leader of the CJNG. Arzola Ortega began his criminal career in 1998 as a cargo truck thief and eventually joined the Milenio Cartel, the predecessor group of the CJNG. After several of his bosses were arrested and/or killed, he founded the CJNG with other defectors in the 2010s.
A group of inmates were involved in a prison riot on 24 May 2019 in the police station cellblocks in Acarigua, Portuguesa state, Venezuela. The riot allegedly began when inmate Wilfredo Ramos was killed following ten days of protests against the denial of visits by relatives.
On January 23, 2020, a gas leak from a truck transporting liquefied petroleum gas caused an explosion in Villa El Salvador, Lima metropolitan area, Peru. The subsequent fires affected at least 20 homes and several vehicles.
The Guanare prison riot, also known as the Guanaremassacre, occurred in the Los Llanos prison in Guanare, Portuguesa state, Venezuela, on 1 May 2020. The events caused around 47 deaths, and 75 people were injured.
A crowd crush occurred in the Los Olivos District of Lima, Peru on 22 August 2020, killing at least thirteen and injuring six others. The crush was a result of a raid by the National Police of Peru on the Thomas Restobar nightclub to break up an illegal gathering amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru.
Since around 2018, Ecuador has suffered a security crisis resulting from conflicts between criminal organizations with connections to drug trafficking. In recent years, coca leaf production has risen in neighboring Colombia and Peru, with both cocaine and coca base entering Ecuador by land and leaving by sea.
María Daniela Icaza Resabala was an Ecuadorian prison official who was the acting director of the Litoral Penitentiary, known officially as Center for Social Rehabilitation of Men No. 1 of Guayaquil, the largest prison in Ecuador. The prison holds nearly 12,000 inmates. She was killed during a wave of violence against prison and municipal officials after gang violence put the country's prisons under military protection.