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| Venezuela prisons called a danger |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/22/2004 |
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Violence in Venezuela's prisons has killed at least 247 inmates and injured 536 so far this year, a local human rights organization said in a media report Nov. 11. Most of the deaths happened during riots, said Humberto Prado, director of the nonprofit group the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, in a report published by El Nacional newspaper. Gunshots killed 120 inmates, and 59 were stabbed to death, he said. Riots and fighting between rival gangs are frequent in Venezuela's 32 overcrowded, dilapidated and understaffed prisons. The most common weapons are firearms and homemade knives, but inmates have also been reported to have used grenades, Molotov cocktails and machetes. Between October 2001 and September 2002, more than 244 deaths and more than 1,200 injuries occurred in Venezuelan prisons, according to the U.S. State Department. More recent figures were not available. Interior Minister Jesse Chacón last week vowed to increase security and improve conditions in the prisons. Prison overcrowding is often caused by administrative delays in the judicial system, Chacón said. About half of the nation's more than 15,000 inmates are awaiting trials. On Nov. 9, three inmates died in clashes between rival gangs in Yare II, a notoriously violent jail on the outskirts of Caracas, Prado said. |
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