Prisoners in Venezuela began a hunger strike on Sunday June 9 to protest against human rights violations of which they say they are victims, two NGOs defending prisoners announced.
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“ Prisoners across the country announced that starting today they would join a peaceful hunger strike “, declared theVenezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), Sunday June 9.
THE NGO identified at least seven detention centers on strike and broadcast images of prisoners, some of whom gathered in corridors and cells, singing the national anthem or making noise with the bars. Contacted by AFP, the authorities did not react immediately.
Several Venezuelan prisons affected
According to the Observatory, prisoners are on strike in the main INOF women’s prison in Miranda (center), the Coro penitentiary center (northwest), the Uribana prison (northwest), the Training Center for the New Woman Manuelita Saenz de l’Aragua (center), the judicial prison of Cumana (north-east), as well as in the jails of the scientific police of Lara (north-west).
According to the NGO “ Una Ventana a la Libertad » (A window to freedom), the Tocuyito prison (center), whose official name is the Training Center for a New Man El Libertador, is also on strike. “ Venezuelan prisoners, victims of procedural delays and penitentiary negligence, feel deceived (…) by the ministry, which has provided no solution to their legal situation », Estimates the OVP.
Prisons almost 200% overcrowded
They ask ” respect for their human rights, sentence reductions, transfers to their prisons of origin and humanitarian measures », According to the NGO.
According to NGO estimates, Venezuelan prisons are almost 200% overcrowded and prisoners constantly complain of mistreatment, delays in procedures and serious feeding problems. At the end of last year, the government resumed military man control of seven prisons believed to be under the control of criminal gangs. Tocuyito Prison was one of them.
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