Inmates at Mexico Jail Vow to Kill 25 Hostages

Inmates who took up to 25 people hostage after a botched prison break left four people dead threatened to begin killing their captives Friday unless they were provided with guns and a safe escape, police said.

The prisoners, believed to number six, demanded an armored car and six rifles and rejected an offer by authorities to provide the vehicle but not the weapons.

A local judicial police spokesman said communications between authorities and the prisoners, who have been isolated in the jail’s administrative building, had been virtually cut off.

The inmates “just grab a hostage by the hair and stick his head out the door and say if their demands are not met they are going to kill him,” the spokesman said.

Surrounded by Troops

He said the jail was surrounded by about 200 army troops and police and described the situation as a standoff.

“The situation continues the same,” he said. “There has been no deal with the inmates.”

The six, members of a gang arrested for terrorizing towns in the state of Nayarit, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast just north of Guadalajara, took the hostages Thursday after their breakout attempt from the state jail in the Nayarit capital of Tepic was foiled.

Among their hostages are believed to be jail administrative personnel and relatives of other inmates who were in the prison during visiting hours. Police said women and children could be among the hostages.

Four people were killed and four wounded in a shootout between prisoners and guards late Thursday. Among the dead was the jail’s warden, Samuel Alvarado, who bled to death after being wounded in the leg, police said.

Along with Alvarado, police identified two others killed as a guard and an inmate. It was not clear who the fourth fatality was. The injured were said to be guards and prisoners.

The leader of the prisoners was identified as Martin Bernal Diaz, a former soldier.

Police said the escape attempt began Thursday morning when two men dressed as lawyers smuggled arms to Bernal and his accomplices inside the jail.

Before the prisoners could make their escape, however, they were intercepted by guards, and a shootout erupted in the prison’s administrative building.