The death toll from Friday's riots inside a prison in western Venezuela has risen to 47 dead and 75 wounded, said an opposition lawmaker and a non-governmental organization concerned with defending the rights of prisoners.
Prison Minister Iris Varela told a local newspaper yesterday that violence had broken out after an escape attempt, and that the prison director had been shot. The minister did not provide a number for the deaths, and the Venezuelan Ministry of Information did not respond to a request for comment.
For his part, Beatrice Giron, director of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory for Prisoners, who defends the rights of prisoners, said that 46 bodies had been identified after Friday's incident in a Los Janos correctional facility, and described what happened as a "massacre."
As for the opposition deputy for the state of Portugesa, where the prison is located, Maria Beatriz Martinez, she said, "We were able to confirm that 47 people were killed and 75 wounded."
According to the sources, all the dead were detainees, while the Venezuelan authorities did not provide a death toll.
A previous toll reported by the army in a report on Friday evening indicated that 17 people were killed and nine wounded.
The military report indicated that "disturbances affected the public order" inside Los Janos prison when inmates violated a "security fence in an attempt to flee collectively", and the prison director was injured.
But the opposition MP rejected this account, saying that "there was no escape attempt, there was an uprising by a group of prisoners who protested that they were unable to obtain food."
Because of the outbreak of the new Corona virus in Venezuela, family visits for the detainees have stopped. They often received food and medicine during those visits.