Inmates Refuse To Resume Talks On Ending Uprising Officials, Reporters Were Seized; Next Contact Expected Today

Inmates holding 23 hostages at a maximum-security prison suspended talks Monday on ending their uprising after turning down a government offer of guns, money and getaway cars.

“Now they want more cars,” said Eli Fortes, a spokesman for government negotiators trying to end the crisis. “Nothing guarantees that they won’t want 13 or 15 cars if we deliver two or three more.”

Fortes said the inmates refused contact Monday at the AgroIndustrial Penitentiary in Aparecida de Goiania, a small town 580 miles northwest of Rio.

The prisoners seized 40 officials and reporters during a tour of the overcrowded prison on Thursday. They later released 17 hostages in exchange for food and water.

A resolution to the crisis had seemed imminent late Saturday, when the negotiators agreed to demands by ringleader Leonardo Pareja, a convicted bank robber and kidnapper.

Negotiators agreed to provide six cars, two .38-caliber revolvers and one box of bullets per car, $20,000, five bulletproof vests and four pairs of handcuffs, Fortes said.

But Pareja then rejected the deal, demanding more cars and bigger guns. He said the next contact would not be until Tuesday.

Pareja appeared briefly Monday playing a guitar atop a water tower at the prison as other prisoners raised a Brazilian flag.