Brasilia, January 7 (RHC)-- At least 33 inmates have been killed in an uprising in a Brazilian prison in the northernmost region of Roraima, local government officials said on Friday.

The riot, which broke out at dawn, was reportedly a reaction to the prison uprising and deaths of around 60 people in the Amazon jungle Manaus prison on Sunday night.  The government has been quick to blame the Roraima riot on the country's wide-reaching criminal organization Primeiro Comando da Capital, the country’s most powerful drug cartel.

Last October, violent clashes at that same prison left at least 25 inmates dead.  The facility, over 2,000 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, is located near the Venezuelan border.

Several of the dead prisoners in Manaus had their decapitated bodies thrown over the prison walls, in what has been considered the bloodiest rebellion in the country’s overcrowded jails within the last two decades.

Officials say police have managed to recapture 40 of the 87 prisoners who escaped.  Brazil has the fourth largest prison population in the world, with over 600,000 inmates living in overcrowded and squalid conditions.

Human rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the inhumane living conditions in Brazilian correctional facilities, which play an instrumental role in sparking violent clashes.