Fire rips through Venezuela prison killing at least 68

CARACAS, Venezuela — Frantic families of victims clashed with police and demanded answers after a blaze ripped through a Venezuelan prison on Wednesday, killing at least 68 in one of the nation’s worst ever prison disasters. 

Details of the incident were still emerging, but late Wednesday, the country’s head prosecutor Tarek William Saab confirmed the death count in a tweet and said four investigators had been appointed to “clarify these dramatic events.” 

Venezuela’s nonprofit human rights group, the Observatory of Prisons, said its own internal sources indicated the death toll was even higher than the official tally — placing it at 78, including woman where were at the prison during visiting hours.

“The chief prosecutor's office guarantees that we will clear up immediately these painful incidents that have left dozens of families mourning, as well as establish the needed responsibilities,” William Saab tweeted.

Windows for Freedom, a nonprofit watchdog group, said the incident appeared to have started after prisoners took a gun from a guard and shot him in the leg. Soon after, a fire started that spread via the prison mattresses.  

Family member waited for almost 12 hours with no information, they said, and fought with police, who used tear gas to push them back. 

“I don’t know if my son is dead or alive,” Aida Parra, who said she had last seen her son the previous day, told the Spanish news agency EFE. “They haven’t told me anything.”

In video footage from the scene, one woman who identified herself as the mother of a prisoner railed against police: “What we want is justice. Corrupt police threw gasoline in there … We want justice, we want to know what is happening.”

The fire was one of the worst jail disasters in a country where human rights officials say that prison conditions are among the worst in Latin America. In 1994, a prison fire in the state of Zulia killed at least 100 prisoners. Last August, at least 37 inmates died in a riot in the southern state of Amazonas.

In a statement, the watchdog group Observatory of Prisons said: “We have been warning of the grave situation of police detention centers that put the lives and personal integrity of the detained at risk … The deaths have to be investigated to define responsibilities, we express our condolences to family members.”

Faiola reported from Miami.

Read more:

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