52 dead in riot at northern Mexico prison

MONTERREY, Mexico — A brutal fight between rival factions killed 52 inmates and injured 12 at a prison in northern Mexico on Thursday, the state governor said.

The country’s deadliest prison riot in many years broke out just six days before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit another Mexican prison, in the border city of Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state.

The governor said the fight broke out between supporters of Zaldivar Farias and Jorge Ivan Hernandez Cantu, who has been identified by local news media as a member of the rival Gulf cartel.

The deadliest earlier prison riot in recent memory also occurred in Nuevo Leon, in February 2012, when members of the Zetas murdered 44 members of the Gulf cartel at the overcrowded Apodaca federal lockup.

According to a 2014 report by the National Human Rights Commission, Topo Chico was designed to house 3,635 prisoners but actually held about 4,585 that year.