25 killed in brawl at Venezuelan prison

A riot by armed inmates has left 25 people dead in one of Venezuela's notoriously overcrowded prisons, according to the government.Relatives wept outside the Yare I complex in the central coastal state of Miranda as sketchy details emerged of fighting among armed gangs in the prison over the weekend. The prisons minister Iris Varela told reporters that 25 people, including one visitor, died in the riot. "We will make them answer for this," she said, adding another 29 inmates and 14 visitors had been injured.

Venezuela's 34 prisons are holding about 50,000 prisoners, three times their capacity, according to advocacy groups. Many of the prisoners are armed and hundreds are killed each year in riots and gang fights. With a presidential election due in less than two months, prison chaos is a politically sensitive issue. Hugo Chávez, the incumbent, blames it on decades of neglect before he took power in 1999 but critics say he socialist president has done little to fix it.

In May, as police forcibly transferred inmates out of La Planta jail in Caracas – built for 350 but housing nearly 2,500 – gunshots rang out among the prisoners. Some were sent to Yare.
A month-long siege occurred last year at El Rodeo prison, just outside the capital, leaving 22 dead before some 5,000 soldiers restored order. In Venezuela's worst incident about 130 prisoners were burned or hacked to death with machetes during gang fights at Sabaneta jail in Maracaibo in 1994.