It sounds like a movie promo, but it is real. The scene is a prison in Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso. Check this out:
Dozens of inmates have escaped from a prison in northern Mexico after gunmen, suspected to be members of a drug cartel, opened fire on the facility.
The men arrived outside the Chihuahua state prison shortly after 07:00 (14:00 GMT) in armoured vehicles and began firing on the guards, authorities say.
Ten were killed, along with four prisoners, during the audacious and brutal attack in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Police say some 24 inmates escaped.
Fighting within the prison, where inmates from differing criminal bands and drug cartels are housed in separate cellblocks, also left 13 people injured. Four of them are being treated in hospital, prison authorities said.
Outside, relatives gathered, hugging each other and crying as they waited for news.
One woman said the attackers were dressed in black, were better armed than the police, and were shooting at any vehicles that passed by.
I told you that it sounded just like a movie. But in this story, the bullets were real and the dead really dead.
The whole thing makes no sense to me so I called a couple of Mexican friends for their thoughts. One friend in Ciudad Juarez said that the cartels are better armed and can throw their weight around whenever they want. He reminded me of another prison outbreak last August that I was not aware of. My other friend said something similar and took a shot at President Lopez-Obrador's "hugs rather than bullets" to fight criminal elements. I concluded from their remarks that neither one is very optimistic about ending violence in Mexico.
Anyway, check out the news because this prison escape was something to watch!
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