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Deprived of their liberty in several states of the country, they are participating in a hunger strike to protest what they see as the state’s “laziness”, procedural delays and absences in the horrific conditions in which prisoners live. Venezuelan law provides for human rights and benefits for those who have served most of their sentences. One prisoner revealed to ND their outrage at the “smoking pot” of the prison service.
Contacted by phone, the prisoner, who requested anonymity, stressed that the hunger strike that began on Sunday is peaceful and explained that it is primarily aimed at providing the state with effective solutions to procedural delays and irregularities in the judicial system.
«We from the Rodeo are on a peaceful strike because we want to be free by serving 50% of our sentences. We want them to stop asking us to serve our sentences as required by the Prison Service, since they are beyond the TSJ’s decisions. We feel oppressed by the Prison Service, because in countless cases the courts have granted benefits to private individuals, but the ministry does not even let us leave, not even in court appearances,» he lashed out.
He explained that the ministry’s requirements for the prison service require private prisoners to serve 75 percent of their sentences, but the process for redemption verification is extremely cumbersome.
“If a political prisoner is sentenced to five years in prison, they have to pay five years of their sentence and wait for the so-called confirmation, a process that will last more than two years,” he added.
He went on to say that the rodeo inmates were asking for a real Kayapa plan.
“Instead of the lies and smoke, they came to cut our hair, take pictures, and released 15 people who had served between one and six months. He has developed the Kayapa plan at the national level and we wonder if anyone knows the total number of freedoms he should grant,” he refused.
Prisons still have structural problems
According to the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, as of Monday afternoon, at least 20 prisons in various states – including dungeons and reformatory centers – had joined the hunger strike.
Luis Izequiel, a UCV lawyer and criminology professor, explains that these peaceful strikes only confirm that the problems in Venezuelan prisons are not over, despite the different measures taken by the authorities in recent years.
“Private groups complain about the poor functioning of the judiciary, they denounce procedural delays, implementation and enforcement of sentences, and they talk about the indifference of the prison service, which only reflects the problems that persist despite the fact that some prisons are said to have been intervened and the state has guaranteed that there will be no more prisoners in our prisons,” he told ND.
In this thought, he stressed that it was clear that the so-called “judicial revolution” and the multi-day kayapa programs that were introduced from time to time were not working.
“It is clear that they are not working, they are just hot towels and emergency plans to solve some temporary problems, but the structural failure problems manifested in procedural delays remain. The system needs the continuous and permanent functioning of the justice system, not emergency actions or specific actions,” he warned.
Regarding the effectiveness of hunger strikes, he commented that, unfortunately, prisoners do not have many ways to get the attention of the state and that in previous cases, these peaceful protests rarely functioned as a form of pressure.
“They tell you that people in these prisons are desperate with such indifferent attention. One of the demands is that they be sent back to the prisons from which they came because there is dissatisfaction with the transfers from prisons last year, as many prisoners are in centers where case courts are located and are being moved to make hearings easier, and they are also in areas where relatives live and it is easier to get food or visits,” he pointed out. “When these interventions happen, procedural delays increase and feeding becomes more difficult; this is probably one of the most important demands, which is to send them back to the prisons from which they came.”
Thirteen years of negligence and inaction
This Monday, the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) recalled that it has documented an unprecedented prison crisis in more than a decade, noting that the main reason for not bringing them to hearings in time, since many prisoners have been transferred, is the lack of transportation or gasoline for these courts: “In some cases, prisoners have up to 40 hearings postponed in two years, while in other cases their trials are interrupted,” he agreed. Include this on your website.
They denounce that if relatives decide to bear the costs of transfer, they encounter other problems, such as poor lighting in the courtroom, lack of material resources, absence of the Public Ministry prosecutor or the judge himself, which leads to the postponement of the hearing.
“This dramatic situation violates the fundamental right of every person to a fair and speedy trial, enshrined in the country’s Constitution and in various international human rights treaties. Moreover, as if procedural delays were not enough, Venezuelan prisoners must also endure overcrowding, violence, lack of basic services and corruption by the same officials of the Penitentiary Service,” the Observatory condemned.
“We are talking about negligence and lack of action by the authorities, who during their 13 years of management, which ended on July 26, have made it impossible to improve living conditions inside the prison. This includes a lack of medical care, inadequate food, non-existent rehabilitation programmes and a lack of measures to ensure the safety of prisoners.
He added that Venezuelan prisons have indeed been described as “hell on earth” or “universities of crime” with prisoners facing extreme conditions of violence, disease and abuse.
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