VENEZUELA:
Prison Homicides Still
Routine
By
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, (IPS) -
In Venezuela’s prisons,
"every human right is
violated every single
day," said a Latin
American ambassador in a
private conversation a
decade ago,
rationalising the
actions of some of his
fellow-countrymen who
had fled from justice in
this country.
On his second visit to
Venezuela on Feb. 9,
1996, the late pope John
Paul II prayed for
several minutes outside
the Retén de Catia, a
notorious Caracas prison
which was demolished a
year later. The press
reported that the
pontiff had visited "the
gates of hell."
"Those words continue to
describe current prison
conditions in
Venezuela," Humberto
Prado, of the
non-governmental
Venezuelan Prison
Observatory (OVP), told
IPS. "Minimum standards
of treatment for persons
held in detention are
not met, and even the
most basic rights are
violated."
Venezuela, with a
population of 27.5
million, has 20,200
people incarcerated in
30 jails, of whom only
7,440 have been
convicted and sentenced
and 12,660 (62.6
percent) are being held
on remand.
Between January and July
2007, "292 people died
in prison, and 634 were
injured, a 55 percent
increase in fatalities
compared to the
equivalent period in
2006. In the whole of
2006 there were 412
deaths and 728
injuries," Prado said.
In short, Venezuela’s
prisons are among the
most violent and
dangerous in the world.
Judge Miguel Vidal was
under a palm branch roof
outside the Barinas
prison, in the southwest
of the country, on the
afternoon of Aug. 31,
when he was shot in the
arm by a prisoner atop
one of the walls.
"In the past, prisoners
in Venezuelan jails
armed themselves mainly
with ‘chuzos’ (crude
homemade knives), but
now they have pistols,
revolvers, shotguns, and
fragmentation grenades.
Once an Uzi submachine
gun was found during a
search," said Prado.
To catch those
responsible for
smuggling weapons and
drugs into the jails,
"scrutiny must focus on
the people who are not
subjected to searches;
that is, the members of
the National Guard, who
keep watch outside the
prisons, and agents who
answer to the Interior
and Justice Ministries,
who keep guard on the
inside," said Prado.
But many cellblocks, and
occasionally entire
prisons, are controlled
by inmates themselves
and their organised
gangs. Weapons are
commonly hidden in
latrine drains.
Gang fights and turf
wars often spark bloody
conflicts. Uribana
prison in west-central
Venezuela opened in 2000
and was billed as a
model jail, the most
modern in the country.
But in January, 18
prisoners were killed in
a single day.
The Inter-American Court
of Human Rights found
last year that in La
Pica prison in eastern
Venezuela, which is
regarded as one of the
most violent in the
country, there were only
16 guards for over 500
prisoners. The warders
worked in two shifts,
making an average ratio
of one warder to every
63 inmates.
Violence is also fuelled
by overcrowding, which
officially stands at
one-third, since the
country’s jails have a
total combined capacity
for 15,000 inmates.
"But the truth is that
up to 80 percent of the
infrastructure and
services in many prisons
are run-down or have
been wrecked," Miguel
Padrón, departmental
coordinator in prison
psychology at the
Central University of
Venezuela (UCV), told
IPS.
The state of prisons in
Venezuela is mirrored in
other countries in the
region. A study of 26
countries carried out by
the United Nations Latin
American Institute for
the Prevention of Crime
and the Treatment of
Offenders (ILANUD) found
that in 25 of the
countries, prisons were
overcrowded, and in 19
of them the situation
was critical.
Overcrowding in prisons
is regarded as a cruel,
inhumane and degrading
form of punishment,
which leads to the
violation of other basic
rights, such as the
right to life and
health. It precludes the
fulfilment of all proper
prison functions, such
as security, exercise
periods, visiting
arrangements, education
and work, the ILANUD
study says.
The Inter-American Court
observed that conditions
in La Pica included
cells that were utterly
demolished, communal
cells designed for seven
inmates that were
occupied by more than 15
people who slept on the
floor without any
bedding or blankets, and
individual cells that
had been appropriated by
gang leaders in
possession of firearms.
Prado pointed out that
the interdisciplinary
commissions entrusted
with classifying
detainees seldom meet,
"and a single official
will take just half an
hour to classify a
prisoner and determine
where he or she is to be
held. A place with a
middling degree of
safety in a dangerous
jail can cost thousands
of dollars."
In mid-2007, UCV’s
Padrón conducted a study
for the OVP on the state
of human rights in
prisons, based on
questionnaires issued to
87 people who met in
focus groups in nine of
the country’s regions.
The focus group
participants were human
rights activists, prison
chaplains and volunteers
working in jails,
lawyers, prison
officials, former
inmates and prisoners’
relatives.
In the survey, 68
percent of interviewees
said that "hygiene
standards are not met,"
but the group
discussions showed that
this phrase hardly does
justice to the reality.
"In prison, teeth are
extracted using pliers,"
and "pasta for the meals
is mixed with sauce on
the floor and then goes
on to the prisoners’
plates."
Not only is "the right
to food not respected,"
but it was said that
"when food arrives at a
prison, first the
National Guards eat,
then the warders, and by
the time it is the
prisoners’ turn, what
started out as 30
chickens have dwindled
to three."
Prisoners depend mainly
on the food and water
brought by their
families. Many of the
cellblocks are without
drinking water.
Availability of lockers
for personal belongings
is a question that only
raises wry smiles.
An improvised wing in La
Pica, consisting of
three rooms unfit for
human habitation, houses
between 22 and 24 women
inmates, according to
the Inter-American
Court. They sleep on the
floor or on layers of
cardboard, and the
single small latrine is
almost constantly
overflowing with foul
drainwater.
In 2006 the Court
ordered the Venezuelan
state to take urgent
precautionary measures
at La Pica, and to
report the actions
taken. But according to
Prado, Caracas has not
yet submitted its
report.
Above and beyond the
harsh conditions and the
continuous risk to life,
"what prisoners resent
most are the procedural
delays that keep them
warehoused without
justice having been
served in their case,"
Marianela Sánchez, a
lawyer at OVP, told IPS.
According to Venezuelan
law, no one may be
detained for more than
two years without being
sentenced. "But the
justice system gets
around this by deferment
of procedures, a legal
ruse that brings back
the bad old days.
Deprivation of freedom
has again become the
rule rather than the
exception in our justice
system," Sánchez said.
Prado said that one
underlying problem is
the lack of political
will. "In the present
administration, since
Hugo Chávez became
president in 1999, we
have had nine justice
ministers and 15 prison
directors, and every one
has come in with their
own new plan," the
activist said.
The government has not
commented on the OVP
report.
Padrón emphasised that
poverty is still the
underlying problem.
"Nearly the entire
prison population is
made up of poor people.
I can’t remember a
single jail I’ve visited
where I haven’t seen a
wall with the graffiti
‘This isn’t where you
pay for crime, it’s
where you pay for
poverty’."
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