On May 12, inmates at the Barinas prison, about 500 km west of the capital Caracas, staged a protest on the prison rooftop. They piled up burning mattresses, unfurled banners reading “SOS,” and chanted “No more torture,” demanding the dismissal of the prison director.
The protesters said they were demonstrating peacefully when guards opened fire, wounding several people. In a video posted on X by the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (VOP), a local non-governmental organization, an inmate cried out: “We want justice. They are shooting us, the guards and wardens.” Footage showed a man with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Venezuelan authorities did not comment on the incident when contacted by Reuters news agency. The VOP said some 1,200 male inmates and more than 100 female inmates at the prison had joined a hunger strike.
Outside the prison, relatives of the inmates scuffled with National Guard troops equipped with riot shields. They told the VOP they heard shouts and then explosions. Yelitza Arrollo, a woman whose son is an inmate, told AFP news agency: “We want the director removed. They are suffering.”
Venezuelan prisons have been under close international scrutiny after the government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez passed a law releasing hundreds of people deemed political prisoners. In January, the US attacked Caracas and arrested former President Nicolás Maduro.
