CARACAS.- Relatives of prisoners protested this Wednesday in Caracas to support the hunger strike undertaken since the weekend in almost half of the Venezuelan prisons amid allegations of corruption, procedural delays, overcrowding and limited access to food.
“Justice! Justice! Justice!”, “We want an answer,” “We are not going to move from here, no one is moving,” shouted about 100 protesters gathered outside the Palace of Justice, in the center of Caracas.
“We want human rights for our relatives,” said María Alejandra Espinoza, whose son is imprisoned in Fénix prison, Lara state.
“The hunger strike is strong, strong, (my son is) already fainted, because there is a horrible precariousness (precariousness), which is not like now, there they die of lack because the visit is very far away,” said Espinoza, of 45 years.
The woman, who lives in Caracas, about 400 km from the prison where her son was transferred, points out that she has been waiting for his relocation for three years. “I have three signatures (orders) for transfer,” but none of them have been finalized, she lamented.
The NGO Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP) He indicated that the hunger strike, which began on Sunday, June 9, is taking place in “19 prisons and more than 30 police cells.”
“We are protesting the procedural delay… there are many more things, their rights are violated, they are hungry,” denounced Sandy Rondón, 43, whose son has been imprisoned without trial for four years.
“Don’t let our children, our husbands die of hunger inside because of the need and mistreatment they are experiencing,” Rondón cried.
Afraid to report, Aracelys Gómez, 60, said that on occasions they have prevented her from bringing food into the prison where her son is, however, “they do allow the food that they (officials) sell them there.”
Maduro does not mention the strike
Not to mention the hunger strike, Nicolas Maduro On Tuesday, he appointed deputy Julio García Zerpa as the new Minister of Penitentiary Services to “end corruption” within the prison system.
García Zerpa, who replaced Celsa Bautista, who has been in office since February 2023, said that in the country there are 44 penitentiary centers and “more than 400 preventive centers or police stations.”
An official from the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs approached the protesters and took note of their demands.
Human rights defenders denounce that in these preventive detention centers they keep detainees in overcrowded conditions, even for years when by law they should only remain for a few days.
The prison population in Venezuela is estimated at about 54,000 prisoners, according to official figures.
Several of the prisons on strike were intervened in 2023 by the government, which evicted some 9,000 inmates from seven prisons, in many cases moving them hundreds of kilometers from the courts that are handling their cases.
Source: With information from AFP
