I tineye'd this one, DR didn't come up. Some of you have probably seen this, some of you probably haven't.
This picture is from the massacre at Santa Ana Jail in El Salvador. There are other pictures in the set, but I just happened to have this one saved.
I didn't realize prisons had swingsets.
Santa Ana Jail Massacre is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Venezuela, but that’s most certainly not where it took place. While Venezuela is without doubt one brutally violent and lawless country where many similarly atrocious massacres take place, it was not where Santa Ana Jail Massacre took place.
The Apanteos jail, better known as Santa Ana Jail for its proximity to the larger town of said name is located 66km (41 miles) west of San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador – Central American country best known for being home to ruthless Mara 18 gang (also known as M-18 or MS-18), the arch rival of even more notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang.
Apanteos Jail aka Santa Ana Jail is a maximum security prison in El Salvador, where 2,000 of country’s most dangerous criminals and gang members are held. The riot broke out on Friday, January 5, 2007 after one of the Mara 18 gang members picked a fight with a prison guard, which quickly spread into a huge brawl involving hundreds of inmates.
While the prison guards fled the scene to observe the riot from a distance, the members of rival El Salvador gangs picked up makeshift weapons and started fighting against each other. Whatever could have been used to kill, was used to kill – from shovels, through broken glass and loose stones – if it could inflict pain and send a rival across the River Styx, it was used.
Eye witnesses say that after the riot broke out, prison guards pulled away and watched the massacre from the distance for hours. As a number of deaths kept rising, support military and police units were called for to help restore order. 21 people were killed in the massacre, many of them stabbed multiple times, beheaded, dismembered and the remains of some hung from a swing frame on a meat hook.
On the day a riot broke out, the Santa Ana Apanteos jail, which was built to hold no more than 1,800 inmates was over its capacity. Some blame the government of El Salvador for mixing members of rival gangs together, and what’s even worse – mixing non gang members with gangsters.
Human rights watchdogs called for dismissal of Neftaly Portillo – the Apanteos jail director as well as Jaime Vilanova – the national head of prisons in El Salvador for gross negligence and mishandling of the riot.
