The riot in Paraguay’s largest prison, in the capital Asuncion, which broke out the day before Tuesday, ended on Wednesday without law enforcement forces clashing with the inmates, but the body of an inmate who died in a knife attack was found a few hours later. later, authorities said.

“Order has been restored, we are back to absolute normalcy. The weapons of the correctional officers have been recovered,” police spokesman Ever Paris told reporters outside Takumbu prison yesterday morning, assuring that there were “no injuries.”

But a few hours later, police said they had found the body of a 26-year-old inmate who had been attacked with a knife because of a “conflict between inmates” during the standoff, the Justice Department said via X (formerly Twitter).

On Tuesday night, inmates climbed onto the roof of the detention center’s main building and threw stones at law enforcement. Inside the prison, others set mattresses on fire, causing a fire. The flames were finally controlled by the fire department.

Twenty-two guards were held hostage for about fifteen hours in the prison, which is particularly notorious for overcrowding. Women, visiting relatives, were inside the buildings during the riot.

The subject of the authorities’ talks with the rebels was not disclosed. However, President Santiago Peña insisted yesterday Wednesday, during a press conference, that his government “does not negotiate with people who are deprived of their freedom”, although its purpose is “to improve the quality of life” of the imprisoned.

“Often the price of peace is to listen to citizens, in this case people who are deprived of their freedom,” he added, avoiding going into details.

“We could have resorted to using force, but we didn’t want to. Not everyone who has been imprisoned is violent,” he clarified.

The uprising broke out days after the Minister of Justice, Angel Barcini, announced that a plan would be implemented to “regain control of the penitentiaries” of Paraguay.

Prisons are controlled, according to the minister, by the Clan Rotela, a gang mainly involved in drug trafficking in Asuncion, and thugs linked to two gangs in neighboring Brazil, the PCC (Primeiro Comando Capital, “First Command of the Capital”) and Comando Vermelho (“Red administration”).

In particular, the rebels demanded that Justice Minister Barcini resign.

But President Peña reaffirmed yesterday Wednesday that he surrounds him with his absolute trust and “all his support”, emphasizing that the problem in Takumbou prison “is not new”. It is, he added, a consequence of “the inmate population being higher” than would normally be provided by “the infrastructure.”

The nominal capacity of the prison is about 1,500 places, but in the oldest detention center of the country there are “2,700 inmates”, of which “only 1,100” have been sentenced, while another “1,600” are still on trial, according to Mr. Peña.