3rd death as gangs shoot it out in La Joya

LA JOYA prison recorded its third inmate killing this year in a shoot out between rival gangs on Thursday November 6.
Killed in the gunfire exchange in Block 9 of the notorious jail was Joel Armando Flores. Sources Public Ministry officials confirmed that an Assistant Prosecutor and police wereconducting  a search to locate the murder weapon.
On Friday, relatives of inmates blocked entrances to the prison to protest the suspension of visits, a measure adopted after the  Thursday shooting,
The protesters, mostly women, placed stones, bags of food and clothes for their relatives and prevented the passage of cars trying to enter the prison.
The protestors alleged that the authorities did not tell them about the measure and complained that they were not allowed to deliver r the food, medicine and clothing that they had brought for their detained relatives.
Buses carrying new prisoners, official vehicles, lawyers and delivery trucks could not get in as demonstrators blocked their path.
Lydia Johnson, mother of an inmate, said she had traveled to the prison from 3:00 am and said that in Blocks 13 and 17 prisoners were in the yard since dawn, had no breakfast and had tear gas thrown at them.
The Director of Prisons, Gabriel Pinzon revealed that in recent months prison officers were fired in Chitre, Herrera, David, Chiriqui and La Joya reports La  Prensa
Pinzon said the officials were removed in accordance with the new guidelines as there were concerns about their performance.
He admitted that there are problems in the institution, but they expect to solve them. He explained that the visits were suspended to facilitate investigations.
Earlier this year in La Joya registered the deaths of two inmates: one in July, by gunshot fire, and another in February when an inmate received stab wounds during a fight There was another gang related shoot out in Colon prison in September.