translated from Spanish: More than a hundred inmates try to escape for fear of coronavirus in Chile

Chile.- Chile’s gendarmerie confirmed on Thursday that it managed to thwart a breakaway of inmates from the criminal Santiago 1, the largest prison in the country, amid the panic over coronavirus contagions.
On Thursday afternoon, some 200 inmates caused unrest and burned clothing and mattresses in an attempted mutiny, which forced the entry of police and fire personnel to control the situation in prison.
Columns of smoke emerging from inside the prison were visible from various points in the Chilean capital, while on the outskirts of the penal, near the center of Santiago, hundreds of relatives gathered, who reported few conditions hygienic in the establishment.

“This was an escape attempt that the institution thwarted thanks to an intelligence job that began wednesday afternoon, eduardo Muñoz told reporters.

The unrest arose when the inmates realized that their plans to escape were thwarted, Muñoz added.

“With coronavirus there was uncertainty among the prisoners and they set out to riot to care for them,” Ricardo, 42, whose son is imprisoned in this prison, which with about four thousand inmates, is Chile’s largest prison, told AFP Ricardo.

In other Latin American countries, such as Brazil or Venezuela, there have been massive escapes from prisons, motivated by fear of the criminal population of coronavirus contagion and restrictive measures applied by the authorities.
The escape attempt occurred when 342 cases of coronavirus occur in Chile.

Original source in Spanish