Venezuela Prison Riot: Over 100 Prisoners Dead or Injured, Guards Allegedly Opened Fire

By Neil P. First Posted: May 08, 2020 08:00 AM EDT

After riots broke out, Venezuelan Prison Observatory rights group provided the latest figures of dead and wounded prisoners at Los Llanos Prison Center in Guanare City, Venezuela, according to a recently published article.

Riot Inside the Los Llanos Prison Center in Venezuela

The Los Llanos Prison Center is one of the most overcrowded and dangerous prisons in Venezuela. It was built and designed only for 750 detainees, but now holds an estimated 2,500 inmates. This means that the prisoners are extremely vulnerable to virus transmission and the spread of illness could be swift and devastating.

There are, however, conflicting reports as to why the riot started. According to the army's official report, inmates started destroying the facility's security fences and were staging a massive escape.

However, this report was not accepted by the Parliamentary Deputy Maria Beatriz Martinez and the Venezuelan Prison Observatory rights group. They firmly believe that the riot started because prisoners were deprived of access to food and medicine brought to them by their families due to the risk of virus transmission.

If any of the prisoners catch the virus from the outside or from their relatives who brought food and medicine for them, there would be widespread contagion. Venezuela today has the world's worst economic and humanitarian crises, and conditions of its prisons are as bad as anywhere else in the world.

100 Inmates Dead or Wounded Due to the Riot

According to the Venezuelan government, based on initial tallies, 17 prisoners were killed, and nine wounded.

However, it contradicts the data of the OVP and Martinez as they have confirmed 47 deaths, while 75 inmates were wounded. All those who died were detainees, but several of those injured were officers, and that includes the prison's director and a lieutenant of the Bolivarian National Guard.

It was also alleged that as the tension escalated, the guards opened fire resulting in the death or wounding of over 100 people. Carolina Giron, director of OVP, said that the identities of those who were killed were later confirmed by relatives.

This event caught the attention of the Human Rights Watch. They said: "Corruption, weak security, deteriorating infrastructure, overcrowding, insufficient staffing, and poorly trained guards keep armed gangs in effective control over prison populations in Venezuela. The United Nations has reported that prison infrastructure is infested with rats and insects, and detainees do not always have access to natural light, food, or water."

It can also be observed that since the global health pandemic, there is unrest in the different prison centers around the globe because either they were restricted from their liberty or because of the fear of catching the virus inside the cell.

It can also be remembered that prisoners in Peru staged a riot and protest after 600 inmates tested positive for the virus while the other prisoners were asking medicines to combat the infectious and deadly virus COVID-19.