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Dedwinson Alvarez / AFP - Getty Images
Members of the National Guard take shelter during a riot outside Uribana Prison in Barquisimeto, Lara state, Venezuela, on Friday. Dozens were killed in a classh at the prison, local media reported.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- The death toll has risen to 61 following fierce gunbattles between inmates and National Guard troops at a Venezuelan prison, a hospital director said Saturday. About 120 more people were wounded in one of the deadliest prison riots in the nation's recent history.
Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said Saturday that officials had begun evacuating inmates from the Uribana prison in Barquisimeto and transferring them to other facilities, but she did not provide an official death toll.
However, Dr. Ruy Medina, director of Central Hospital in the city of Barquisimeto, told The Associated Press that the number of dead had risen to 61. He initially told Venezuelan news media after the Friday uprising that about 50 were killed.
Medina said that nearly all of the injuries were from gunshots and that 45 of the estimated 120 people who were wounded remained hospitalized. Some underwent surgeries for their wounds.
Relatives wept outside the prison during the violence, and cried at the morgue Saturday as they waited to identify bodies.
Nayibe Mendez, the mother of a 22-year-old inmate in the prison, told the AP that she was able to talk by phone with her son and he was uninjured.
"What they say is that there were shots all over the place, and they don't know where they came from," Mendez said. "It was a massacre. A full list hasn't come out of the dead and injured."
Mendez spoke by telephone from the morgue, where she said she went out of solidarity. "We're all hurt. No matter what, a prisoner has a right to live," she said, demanding that the authorities fully investigate what happened.
Varela said during a news conference that officials decided to evacuate all inmates from the prison in order to "close this chapter of violence." She did not provide any estimates of the numbers killed and injured, and instead criticized Venezuelan news media at length for their coverage of the violence.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the bloodshed tragic and said Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello would lead the investigation.
"The prisons have to be governed by law," Maduro said on television early Saturday.
The riot was the deadliest in nearly two decades. In 1994, more than 100 inmates died in the country's bloodiest prison on record, at a prison in the western city of Maracaibo. In 1994, about 60 inmates were killed in a riot in a Caracas prison.
Varela said that the violence erupted at Uribana prison on Friday when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.
She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after receiving reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.
Douglas Briceno said his nephew, who is held at the prison, was wounded in the foot during the shooting. "I think he's out of danger," Briceno told the AP. "I haven't been able to communicate with him because they don't let me pass to the prison."
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles condemned the government's handling of what he and many other critics call a growing crisis in the country's prisons.
"Our country's prisons are an example of the incapacity of this government and its leaders. They never solved the problem," Capriles said on his Twitter account. "How many more deaths do there have to be in the prisons for the government to acknowledge its failure and make changes?"
The riot at Uribana prison was the latest in a series of bloody clashes in the country's severely overcrowded prisons, where inmates often freely obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. Venezuela currently has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons' population is about 47,000.
The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a watchdog group, said in a statement that in 2007 the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights had ordered the government to seize weapons that inmates had in their possession at Uribana prison and to take measures to avoid deaths in the facility. The group called for the government to release a list with the names of the dead and wounded in Friday's violence, as well as details about weapons seized in the search.
"No one doubts that inspections are necessary procedures to guarantee prison conditions in line with international standards, but they can't be carried out with the warlike attitude as (authorities) have done it," said Humberto Prado, an activist who leads the prison watchdog group.
"It's clear that the inspection wasn't coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force," Prado told the AP.
His group says Uribana prison was built to hold up to 850 inmates but currently has about 1,400.
Similar though less deadly clashes have flared repeatedly during the past few years.
In April and May, a prison uprising in La Planta prison in Caracas blocked authorities from going inside for nearly three weeks. One prisoner was killed and five people were wounded, including two National Guard soldiers and three inmates.
Two months later, another riot broke out at a penitentiary in Merida, and the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory reported 30 killed.
In August, 25 people were killed and 43 wounded when two groups of inmates fought a gunbattle inside Yare I prison south of Caracas.
President Hugo Chavez's government has previous pledged improvements to the prison system, but opponents and activists say the government hasn't made progress.
Varela, the prisons minister, said news media including Globovision and a local newspaper had run reports on the inspection by authorities, which she said had in fact been a "trigger for the violence."
Prado denied that, saying: "The problem isn't the work of the media. The problem is that the government hasn't disarmed the prison population."
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It's between 25 and 54 deaths. Is that all....?
The way i see it.....It's a win win situation.
Does she do live nude cam shows?
So a system built for 12,000 has 47,000 prisoners? gee that sounds alot like Attica prison in NY when it erupted. Gee I wonder why? Always some right winger trying to save money by doing things on the cheap. And for you guys that think the death is a good thing, they didn't say all the deaths where inmates. I'm betting there is blood on all sides.
Hey, there. Good try, but there are NO right wingers in Venezuela's government....
Evidently conditions at Venezuela's overcrowded lock-ups are worse than at American prisons. Rats kept in the same conditions that prevail at US prisons eat each other. What's surprising to me is that more riots don't happen.
Except we have millions in our prisons instead of 50k.
Where is Hugo when you need him?
He died on the waiting list for Castrocare....Obamacare's little brother...
Any day now.
5,000 troops needed to restore order. Can't they just lob in a bunch of sleeping gas?
How big are these damn prisons?
I want to hear what Hugo has to say about it.
Not just a picture of him with a current newspaper.
Yeah, right. All I know is that I want pussy.
Maybe the warden let's arms slip in to keep the population down. Save food money.
I wonder why such a fair communist system has so many prisoners?
Did Hugo lock up his Tea Party?
Netanyahu, netanyahu!
I know it is hard to believe that any country has a more violent and abuse ridden prison system than the U.S.A. ...and yet here's the proof.
One wonder's where Hugo Chavez finds the gumption to point the finger at us when he really should be attending to his own backyard.
The gangs run the prison, The prison guards are afraid to enter, There is rampant activity in drugs and weapons,
There is 3 times as many inmates that the prisons can handle, Most are never released,
Time for the island prison!!!! Guards never need to enter cause supplies is dropped weekly. Air is the only way off.
Been done before and worked !! Cheaper and less dangerous too !
How about an auction instead. Highest bidder for the worst of the worst inmates. The people who rape and murder get to be auctioned off first. The winner of that auction gets to hunt that prisoner anywhere they want, jungle, desert, forest. All proceeds can go for the victims families or put to some other good non government use.
The police probably committed most of the murders, but you'll never be told that because you'll only hear the government side of what occurred. In the worst mass shooting murder in American history, armed New York state police and national guardsman broke into the Attica state prison in New York in 1971 and shot to death 38 unarmed men, including the 8 hostage guards they went in there to rescue. They tried to blame the murders on the unarmed inmates, but even the warden wouldn't go along with that lie. This is what is known as state sanctioned murder.
Ban Venezuela now, before it gets into the hands of criminals -- oh, yeah...too late for that now.
Venezuela supplies about on third of our oil.
The US could learn something from this...tow a retired US aircraft carrier out into the very edge of US territorial waters...stock it with plenty of food, water, small arms and ammo...then put 10,000 prisoners on the aircraft carrier...the security guards can be on patrol boats out of range...when the prisoners are all dead but one...restock the aircraft carrier and repeat...
NBS.com/ Reuters error:
"CARACAS -- A jail riot in southwestern Venezuela killed dozens of people on Friday, local media reported, the latest incident in the ongoing crisis in the South American nation's crowded prisons. Violence broke out after news of an inspection to confiscate weapons at the Centro Occidental jail,"
A simple google map search confirms that "Uribana Prison in Barquisimeto, Lara state, Venezuela" is in North Central or Northwest Venezuela. Barquisimeto, Venezuela is between Maracaibo and Caracas, west of Valencia, Venezuela. Almost all of the population of Venezuela is in the north of the country. By the way "Centro Occidental" means Center Western and refers to a Center Western Region of Venzuela.
NBC only prints what it's Mooslime masters tell them to....Truth & facts don't matter!!
And Chavez wasn't ever there to get them worked into a frenzy.
Think about it....30% of the human population are nothing but self-serving murderous scum......millions upon millions upon millions of those wide eyed murderous lunatics you see photographs of ready to chop some one's head off for calling Allah a dog turd....these people have the I.Q. of a jackass.
You are absolutely correct.
I believe the American C.I.A. has a lot to do with it. Just google the American Ajax project and free yourselves. That is why the Egyptian people are rebelling. C'mon, Nicaragua, Panama, Chile, etc....etc.... break FREE!...
I think Mexico would make a great prison. Plenty of dope,tacos,hookers and guns. Sounds perfect to me. Or maybe Florida, then we could put them on boats and send them to Cuba. ya, I like it. I could run this show. Tacos ,hookers and lots of guns.....who wouldnt love that!!
It just goes to show that violent prisoners are just that, violent. Violent prisoners and drug traffickers should not even be in prison, they should be in land fill fertilizing the soil. Society has to rid itself of it's vermin and keeping them locked up doesn't work for some types of crime, it just doesn't.
Socialism fails on another level - to dysfunctional to properly run a prison system.
Learn a lesson folks, quit embracing it here.
Armed prisoners. Sounds like a great place to work.
The bad guys - always end up with guns - something to think about when many are eager to step on the 2nd Amendment.
Bullies exist - due to lack of or threat of resistance
Do the crime, do the time. Maybe they should just make those prisons weapons-free zones. Yeah.... that's the ticket. Then there would be no weapons.... right?
Does President Obama truly want America to be more like the Venezula social model?
So Michael and the rest of you who sit in judgement: you have never driven drunk? A crime prosecuted under the common law even if you are below statute levels, just depending on whatever dumb f*ck move you made while driving. Ever cheated on your income taxes??? Federal crime. Ever threatened violence against another in the heat of the moment or as u were road raging in your fat suv? Or over the internet? The former is a state crime, the latter a federal crime that can get you five years if they want to play hard ball with you. If u ever had a gun on you or your person anywhere close to a school that is another federal crime. Ever buy a purse or clothing for your girlfriend that was designer fake? Another crime. Not all prisoners are murderers or rapers. The fact is, most in the US and Venezuela have been imprisoned for far pettier crimes and they just couldn't afford to pay a good enough lawyer like some people can. A couple of people like Martha Stewart and Madoff were made examples out of, but every now and then the US has to do that to cover their a$$. You or any one in your family, if you make a wrong move can be convicted of the seemingly pettiest crime. So don't be so ignorant, naive or judgemental to sit there and act like you and yours are incapable of ever getting a dui or tax evasion or perhaps nailed for doing the nasty with a minor because well...sh*t happens to arrogant people. It can happen to you or yours anytime... so stay prayed up and learn that the bible says: you are NOT GOD and have no right to judge prisoners or Venezuela!
Nothing new here. Prison riots come and prison riots go. This will happen again.There is no such thing as a "happy and contented" prisoner,and a prisoner with a weapon will certainly use that weapon to gain freedom,or get even. Wonder how the prisoners got those guns? Prisoners do have the right to be treated humanly, unless they act otherwise.
Not sure what went wrong but for the person blaming right wingers for this, there are no right wingers running anything in the Venezuelan government right now...Imagine. A Socialist regime that has problems like this. How does that happen??
Where's the outrage from Chavez's arch US cheerleader hypocrite Sean Penn? I guess the great socialist utopia in Venezuela has skeletons in the closet out of touch actors choose to ignore. Viva Chavez...dope.
Perfect!!! 61 less criminals to worry about.
How many prison guards were killed in this Venezuelan prison riot ?
How many police were killed?
Was this actually a mass murder?