Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

The riot that occurred in the detention room of the Municipal Police of Páez in Acarigua in the state of Portuguesa, where 29 inmates died, is one of the prison incidents registered in Venezuela during the administration of the Nicolás Maduro regime.

The general coordinator of the Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones (Venezuelan Prison Observatory – OVP), Humberto Prado, said that it is the people responsible for the state penitentiary system who have allowed the police cells to become checkpoints and prisoners who are under the responsibility of the state to keep dying.

The following is a chronology of the riots registered in the Venezuelan prisons under the indifferent gaze of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro regime:

2019

May 24: 29 inmates died in a riot inside police cells in the town of Acarigua, according to the Secretary of Public Safety of the Portuguesa state, Oscar Valero.

According to the official, the intervention of Special Action Forces of the National Police (Faes) to control an “attempted mass escape” sparked a confrontation with shots and grenades that left, in addition, 19 officials wounded.

2018

March 28: 68 dead left a fire in the Police Headquarters of Carabobo state, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, one of the worst prison tragedies in recent years in the country.

The Public Ministry did not specify how the flames originated, but the NGO Una Ventana a la Libertad, defender of the rights of inmates, denounced that they occurred during a riot after an escape attempt.

2017

March: The remains of 15 people were found in a common grave in the General Penitentiary, in San Juan de los Morros, after being closed.

April: A clash between rival gangs left 12 dead and 11 injured in the Puente Ayala prison in Barcelona.

June: Nine dead left an attempt to escape in a dungeon in Cumaná.

August: A search of officials from the Ministry of the Interior unleashed a confrontation that left at least 37 dead and 17 injured officials in the Judicial Detention Center of Amazonas.

2016

March: Five inmates died and 57 were injured after taking the prison director of the Fénix Penitentiary Center in Lara as a hostage.

2015

August: 16 dead and 17 injured left a fire in Tocuyito prison, Carabobo.

2014

November: 21 inmates died and 145 were poisoned after drinking an alcoholic cocktail and drugs in protest against the conditions of imprisonment in the prison of Uribana, in Lara.

2013

January: 60 inmates died and some 150 were injured in a riot in Uribana.

September: 16 prisoners died after a confrontation in the prison of Maracaibo.

2012

January: Clashes in two prisons in Táchira resulted in the death of 10 inmates.

March: A fight in the prison of La Pica, Monagas state, left 10 dead and nine injured.

July: 28 prisoners died and 17 were injured in the Penitentiary Center of the Andean Region, Mérida state, in a conflict that lasted three weeks.

August: 20 prisoners died after a confrontation between gangs in the prison of Yare I, near Caracas.

2011

June/July: 30 inmates and 3 military officials died in a month-long riot in the El Rodeo prison, outside of Caracas.
November: 8 dead prisoners left the kidnapping of 4 policemen over several days in the Prisoners Barracks in Tachira.