A riot erupted at a prison in central Venezuela on Friday, killing at least 40 people and injuring 50 more, including a National Guard officer who was wounded by an explosion and the warden, who suffered a knife wound, authorities said.
The upheaval at the Llanos Penitentiary Centre started with an inmate protest demanding that their relatives be allowed to deliver them food and then an armed confrontation broke out between inmates and guards, lawmaker Mara Beatriz Martnez said.
The National Guard officer was injured by a grenade explosion, said Martnez, who had access to an early report prepared by the town’s security forces. The prison is located in the city of Guanare, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south-west of the capital of Caracas.
Venezuela’s minister of penitentiary services, Iris Varela, confirmed the riot, telling the local newspaper Ultimas Noticias that a group of inmates attacked officers standing guard outside the prison.
The warden was injured by at least one inmate wielding a knife, Varela said.
A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is gripped by a deepening political and economic crisis. Street violence is common in the nation that has had nearly 5 million residents flee in recent years as public services crumble.
Venezuela has roughly 30 prisons and 500 jails that can hold an estimated 110,000 inmates. Human rights officials say the prisons are violent and badly overcrowded, with gangs that traffic weapons and drugs in control.
According to the human rights group Venezuelan Prison Observatory, the Guanare prison was built to hold 750 inmates but is jammed beyond capacity with 2,500 inmates.
A similar riot occurred a year ago in a nearby jail also in the state of Portuguese, where 29 inmates died at a police jail that housed several hundred detainees.
Violence broke out when armed inmates objected to officers entering the jail.At least 17 inmates have been killed in a riot at a prison in the Venezuelan city of Guanare, according to military authorities.
A military report cited by AFP news agency said detainees at the Los Llanos prison on Friday staged "a disturbance of public order ... resulting in 40 deaths and 50 injuries".
The army gave no reason for the upheaval, but a prisoners' rights group and a legislator said the riot resulted from prison authorities banning prisoners' relatives from bringing them food, as is customary in Venezuelan jails, as part of coronavirus containment efforts.
"The prisoners are upset that they are not allowed visits, and they do not have water or food," Carolina Giron, of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), told AFP.
"The vast majority of the prisoners are malnourished and have tuberculosis," Giron said.
The National Guard report said soldiers fired at a group of armed prisoners as they tried to break out of the main entrance of the prison. One officer with a megaphone then negotiated with the inmates, and they agreed to withdraw, it added.
The report said the military assumed there had been more deaths inside the prison, and legislator Maria Martinez told Reuters news agency that more than 40 people were known to have died.
Martinez said a confrontation broke out between inmates and guards after the prisoners began protesting to demand that their relatives be allowed to bring them food.
Among those reportedly wounded were the prison's director, hurt in the back, and a lieutenant injured by shrapnel from a grenade.
#1Mayo Los heridos del Cepella colapsaron el área de emergencias del hospital Dr. Miguel Oraá de Guanare, estado #Portuguesa. Aún no hay información oficial sobre la cantidad de fallecidos durante el motÃn dentro del centro penitenciario. Fotos cortesÃa de @prensakike
Pictures posted on the OVP's Twitter account showed wounded inmates in the emergency area of the Dr Miguel Oraa Hospital in Guanare, 450km (280 miles) southwest of the capital, Caracas.
"There is no official information over the number of deaths during the riot inside the prison," OVP said, calling for a comprehensive investigation and describing as "dubious" the version of the riot according to which prisoners tried to escape.
To date, Venezuela has confirmed 335 coronavirus cases and 10 deaths associated with COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the pathogen. The country has suspended family visits to prisoners as a precaution measure aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus.
Human rights organisations say prisons in Venezuela are violent and badly overcrowded, with gangs that traffic weapons and drugs in control.
