Anguished relatives of some 68 people killed in a riot and fire in the cells of a Venezuelan police station demanded explanations yesterday while rights groups and opposition politicians blamed leftist President Nicolas Maduro for overcrowding in the country’s notoriously violent jails.
Deadly riots are common in Venezuela’s prisons, where inmates often openly wield machine guns and use drugs.
But the death toll from Wednesday’s riot in the decrepit city of Valencia, once a thriving industrial hub, was the worst from such an incident in more than two decades.
The public prosecutor put the number of people who died at 68, including two women who were visiting inmates.
Wailing families demanding information outside the police station were dispersed with tear gas on Wednesday.
But the scene in the city, about 150km (90 miles) west of Caracas, was quiet and mournful yesterday.
About 100 largely poor Venezuelans waited to collect bodies.
“What we know is that there was a fire and the boys were burned,” said construction worker José Hernandez, whose 24-year-old son Jefferson died in the flames.
Jefferson, the youngest of his three children, had been arrested on drug charges, Hernandez said, adding: “What we want is justice and clarity on what happened.”
Opposition politicians said the disaster was another sign of the ruling socialists’ incompetence in a country that is deep in economic crisis and is plagued with food shortages, hyperinflation, and rampant crime.
“The only culprit is the government, which keeps a huge quantity of prisoners crammed together in police office cells for a long time in inhumane conditions,” said opposition lawmaker Yajaira Forero.
In Geneva, the UN human rights office called on authorities to carry out a speedy investigation.