Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Buenos Aires, Jan 12 (EFE).- Most of the 173 inmates in a women's prison in Buenos Aires province were on their third day of a hunger strike Thursday to demand better treatment from penal authorities.
The prisoners are conducting their peaceful protest in the Los Hornos prison, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of the Argentine capital.
The strike was begun on Monday to demand that authorities investigate the death of a 30-year-old inmate found strangled with a sheet in her cell that day, authorities said.
Justice Ministry officials said an autopsy showed that the woman, who was serving a murder sentence, committed suicide.
More than 100 of her fellow inmates, however, are staging their hunger strike to demand better prison conditions, and they are conducting negotiations to that effect with officials of the Human Rights Ministry.
Most of Argentina's prisons are overcrowded, which has spurred inmates to stage riots and protests of various sorts such as the one in Los Hornos. EFE
Copyright 2006 Efe. All Rights Reserved.
