Truly, this global pandemic of Coronavirus or COVID-19 has the entire world on the edge of its seat. Venezuela does not escape from this as, by the time this article is being written, there are, according to official numbers, 36 people diagnosed with the disease.
As a human rights defender of those who are imprisoned, I feel very concerned that in all of the information that is emerging to prevent COVID19 and the actions taken by the Venezuelan State, there are no references to the men or women who are imprisoned. It seems as if they are not real or that they don’t matter.
I am not a doctor, so I do not know if COVID-19 will reach prisons and preventive detention centers in Venezuela. I hope not. I am sure, however, that, if it did, it would be a catastrophe of great magnitude due to the terrible conditions experienced by those who live in these places.
From the organization I lead, “Una Ventana a la Libertad’, we have reported the severe conditions suffered by the prisoners of the 238 preventive detention centers or police jails that we monitor in 15 states of the country.
In these places, according to our 2019 report, there are 19,091 prisoners and they have a capacity of 6,448 people, which represents an overpopulation of over 205%. This data alone, is enough to conclude that social distancing is impossible to achieve in spaces in which prisoners need to take turns to lay down in bed because it is impossible for all of them to do it at the same time.
Likewise, according to our 2019 report, 192 prisoners died, 46 of them due to various diseases, in most cases tuberculosis. In addition to this, which is already very serious, our research determined that there are 1,103 ill prisoners, 224 with tuberculosis, 96 with respiratory diseases and 289 with malnourishment. The rest had other types of diseases.
UVL also reported the lack of sanitation of 93% of the monitored detention centers. There is little to no access to drinking water. In addition, food, medicines and other basic items were provided by relatives, given that the police facilities do not have these services, not even for their own use.
With these conditions, it is not difficult to imagine what would happen once COVID-19 reaches these detention centers, there is no need to an expert in medicine to know that that the propagation of the virus would have catastrophic consequences and the most serious aspect is that, to the moment, we do not know of any prevention plans by the state, which we consider urgent and necessary.
We have seen protests in prisons in Italy, a massive escape of over a thousand prisoners in São Paulo, Brasil, as well as the liberation of a large amount of prisoners in Iran, especially those with sentences lower than 5 years, but, in Venezuela, there is only silence from the authorities in regards to prisoners. Regardless of the reason why prisoners are in jail or the crimes they have committed, there is an urgent need to create plans in case COVID-19 reaches Venezuelan prisons.
Translated by: Pedro Graterol.
