Inmates at the Barinas prison in western Venezuela staged a protest on Sunday on the roof of the penitentiary, piling up burning mattresses and demanding the dismissal of the prison director, whom they accused of supervising guards while they shot against unarmed inmates.
“At this moment we feel attacked by all the public officials of the institute, mainly by the director Macuarewhich attacks us with firearms,” said a prisoner in a video shared on Venezuelan Prisons Observatorya local NGO, in which a man is seen with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The inmates claimed that in the midst of their peaceful protest, prison staff opened fire, leaving some injured.
Venezuelan authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In videos shared by the observatory, the prisoners called for the dismissal of the newly appointed prison director, Elvis Macuare Guerreroalleging that he took their clothes, prohibited them from receiving visitors, and pressured them to sell drugs.
Relatives of the inmates clashed with police officers outside. National guardarmed with riot shields, while they tried unsuccessfully to prevent them from entering. According to what they informed the NGO, they heard screams and explosions a few minutes after the agents entered.
The NGO reported that it was documenting the events and reporting them to human rights monitoring organizations.
Venezuelan prisons face permanent international surveillance while the Government in charge of Delcy Rodriguez approved a law to free hundreds of people considered political prisoners, after the United States military raided Caracas in January and captured its president.
