Clauvino da Silva’s death days after escape bid dressed up as his daughter seen as humiliation for overcrowded jail system

The Brazilian gang leader whose attempt to escape prison dressed as his daughter made global headlines has been found dead in his cell in Rio de Janeiro.

The state prison service, Seap, said officers found the body of Clauvino da Silva, 42, on Tuesday morning at the high security prison complex he had attempted to flee. It added that he appeared to have taken his own life.

Prisoners decapitated and asphyxiated in city of Altamira, in dispute linked to local drug trade

At least 57 people have been killed in a gruesome gang battle that broke out in an prison in the Brazilian Amazon on Monday morning.

Officials said a local drug gang had invaded the wing controlled by its rivals in the city of Altamira in the state of Pará, decapitated 16 prisoners and set mattresses on fire, with dozens more thought to have asphyxiated in the smoke.

Politicians, academics and writers have fled a climate of death threats and hostility reminiscent of the military dictatorship

At times, the solitude and separation from family and friends have plunged Jean Wyllys into despair. “I’ve been through moments of deep sadness, I’ve spent the whole night crying,” he said, speaking by phone from his new home in Berlin. “So I avoid thinking about it too much. I’ve kept very busy, I’ve written a lot.”

A writer and university professor, Wyllys won Brazil’s version of Big Brother before becoming one of the country’s best-known leftwing politicians, and the only openly gay lawmaker in congress.