STATEMENT FROM VENTANA A LA LIBERTAD TO THE GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA AND THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

Venezuela joins the long list of countries affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. The entire national and international community is also aware of the serious prison crisis that Venezuela has been going through for several years and that violates the most basic human rights of the national prison population.

Since 1997, Una Ventana a la Libertad (A Window To Freedom, UVL) promotes and defends the human rights of people deprived of liberty in Venezuela through research, the creation of legislative proposals in prison matters, and the formulation of public policies that benefit the inmates and their families.

In 22 years, reports and complaints presented by UVL tell about the collapse of the Venezuelan prison system and the serious consequences that this brings to the country’s prison population, through exhaustive monitoring of the main Preventive Detention Centers located in 15 states where UVL researchers are present.

In the most recent 2019 report, based on the alerts raised, we notice how the deaths of prisoners in state custody are in many cases an inevitable consequence of prison overcrowding. This is the main cause of the crisis in Venezuelan jails and the constant companion of all other violations of fundamental rights of prisoners, as it constitutes one of the primary health risks for the prison population.

Currently, there is a prison population of 19,091 inmates in Preventive Detention Centers designed to temporarily house a population of just 6,448 detainees. By monitoring 238 centers in 15 states, UVL computes a rate of overpopulation of 205%. This has led to infectious and contagious diseases affecting at least 494 detainees and accounting for 44.8% of the reported diseases. Also, UVL found 224 tuberculosis causes and documented the death of 22 inmates only from this disease in 2019.

Also in 2019, UVL reported the lack of sanitation in 93% of the monitored detention centers, where some inmates show severe signs of malnutrition, due to government neglect to provide food and medicine to the prison population.

Today, Venezuela must face the spread of a virus declared by the World Health Organization as a pandemic, in the face of a collapse of the national health system and the disproportionate prison overcrowding. UVL calls for and demands from government authorities and the country’s prison and health authorities, the immediate attention to the population deprived of liberty, which by the way saw family visits restricted after the first cases of Covid-19 came to light, to avoid any spread of the virus.

It is no secret that family members often bear the responsibility of covering the inmates’ food and medicine expenses since the State and the Venezuelan government have forgotten to comply with the most elementary and fundamental human rights of those deprived of freedom. UVL demands the Venezuelan government to urgently take care of the prison population, already vulnerable and unfortunately exposed to contagious diseases, which in the context of the spread of Covid-19 in the country may suffer greater health complications.

Una Ventana a la Libertad will continue to advocate for the rights of all Venezuelan prisoners, without distinction and exclusion. With the same inclusion criteria, it reiterates its commitment to continue being the voice of the voiceless and to continue to watch over the human rights of the entire prison population of the country.

Caracas, March 17, 2020