Versión Español
On Sunday, a prison riot took place at the Uribana penitentiary, considered “one of the three most violent jails in Venezuela,” according to Humberto Prado, director of the independent Venezuelan Prison Observatory.
Government officials said a woman visiting Uribana smuggled a grenade into the prison in her intimate parts. Prisoners later detonated the grenade, killing three guards and wounding seven other prison staff.
“Three of our ministry guards were overpowered, kidnapped, and robbed of their service weapons by a score of inmates brandishing a grenade,” reported the Penitentiary Service Ministry in a press release. Authorities in charge of investigating the killings will interrogate a total of 26 prisoners and 3 visitors.
Last year, a similar riot at Uribana left 58 dead and 90 injured. According to Prison Observatory, 506 prisoners died in Venezuelan jails in 2013, 14 percent fewer than the amount of deceased prisoners in 2012.
The late former President Hugo Chávez created the Penitentiary Service Ministry in 2011 in response to the largest riot crisis in the Venezuelan prison system at El Rodeo II jail. It remained under the control of 1,000 armed prisoners for an entire month, holding out against a military siege.
The nation’s penitentiary capacity is only equipped for 16,000 inmates, but is currently holding some 53,000 convicts and defendants awaiting trial.
Source: Fox News Latino.
