Non-governmental organization reports start of hunger strike in Venezuelan prisons

A non-governmental organization that ensures the defense of the rights of deprived of liberty Venezuela reported on Sunday the start of a hunger strike in the South American country’s prisons to demand that their human rights be respected in the midst of a system crisis.

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said on The organization assured that the country’s prisons face critical overcrowding and poor nutrition.

The women deprived of their liberty at the National Institute for Women’s Guidance (INOF)—the only women’s prison in the country—also joined the strike to complain about delays in their judicial processes, the apathy regarding the situation in the prisons and the discontent over government programs “that have not provided any solution to their legal situation,” added the Observatory.

The Associated Press He requested comment from government authorities but did not immediately receive a response.

Through its human rights) of the prison population.” And she attaches images of medical care, training and other activities being provided to prisoners.

The Observatory responded to the minister on the same social network, regretting that “she does not accept reality.”

The images released by the Observatory show the women in one of the INOF hallways, where they protested by rattling plastic bottles or any article that could make noise. On the other hand, in a men’s prison that he did not identify, the prisoners gathered and crowded in the hallways sang a song.

A 2023 report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) described the situation of those deprived of liberty in Venezuela as “one of the most serious in the region.” Among the main deficiencies, he mentioned overcrowding and the lack of updated official figures in the country’s prison system.

According to the IACHR, official figures recorded a prison population in 2022 of 33,558 prisoners in 45 prison centers. However, he assures that there is a “duality of the penitentiary system” that takes shape in preventive detention centers, which he called “dungeons”, raising the registry to 35,000 inmates. He did not have access to data from 2023, he added.

Jail cells are known as places of detention in police stations in which the stay should be short.

Overcrowding, which can exceed 200% in some prisons in the country, “can in itself constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, violating the right to personal integrity and other human rights,” the international organization noted.

Another problem that the Prison Observatory points out in its reports published on the internet is that those deprived of their liberty are detained without taking into account their proximity to their families or the jurisdiction or territory where their cases are being processed. 70% of the procedural delay is due to transportation problems, he added.

At the beginning of May, the non-governmental organization asserted that prisoners in a prison in Caracas had been “without eating protein for three months,” a situation that, it assured, “is experienced in the rest of the prisons in Venezuela.”

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels Youtube, WhatsApp and to the newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.