Weapons stash uncovered at Venezuelan prison

Speaking with reporters at the empty prison, Ms Varela said officials also
found 6 kilograms of various types of drugs and hundreds of contraband
cellphones

She vowed a thorough investigation into how the weapons were smuggled in.

“Those who end up being responsible for this whole situation are a bunch
of traitors,” Ms Varela said. She said no one had been detained thus
far in the investigation.

Prison unrest and crowding have become major problems for President Hugo
Chavez’s government. Violence is common inside Venezuela’s prisons, where
inmates often manage to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt
guards.

The watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory says about 560 people died
in Venezuelan prisons last year, up from 476 in 2010.

When Ms Varela was asked whether inmates are armed in most of the country’s
prisons, she said: “There’s a difficult situation, but they aren’t the
majority.”

She also confirmed a recent news report that one prison in central Aragua
state has a discotheque, and said various other prisons have swimming pools.
She said such perks were allowed in the prisons starting more than a decade
ago in an attempt to ease violence.

The Venezuelan newspaper El Universal recently said that inmates in Tocoron
prison organised a Mother’s Day concert, bringing in artists to perform at a
discotheque called “Tokio.”

Ms Varela said the government plans to soon begin building eight new prisons,
which are scheduled to be finished next year.

Venezuela currently has 33 prisons. They were built to hold about 12,000
inmates, but officials have said the prisons now hold about 47,000.

Source: agencies

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes