VENEZUELA: Prison Hostage Drama Ends Peacefully

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, May 27 2005 (IPS) - Dozens of children and other hostages held by rioting inmates at the La Pica penitentiary in eastern Venezuela were finally released as the incident reached a peaceful end Friday, with an agreement to speed up judicial procedures and grant various concessions to 60 of the jail’s 640 prisoners.

Tears, smiles, shouts and applause marked the reunion of the children and other relatives of inmates – many of whom were voluntarily held “hostage” to back the prisoners’ protests – with family members waiting outside the prison gates. The youngest hostages were freed first, at sundown on Thursday, including a number of babies carried out in their mothers’ arms.

A panel made up of prison officials, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, regional lawmakers, municipal authorities from the nearby city of Maturín (500 km east of Caracas) and the local Catholic bishop successfully negotiated an agreement with representatives of the inmates and their families, thus bringing an end to 12 days of high tension.

“The government has assumed its responsibility and acknowledged a social debt with regard to the penal system that dates back 25 years,” said Erling Rojas, the director of prisons at the Ministry of the Interior and lead government negotiator in the talks. “There will be no reprisals,” he added.

La Pica is home to 600 male inmates and 40 women prisoners housed in a separate wing. On May 15, at the end of visiting hours, the inmates staged a riot and took over 200 visiting relatives hostage, including some 60 children and teenagers.

Their main demand was to speed up the evaluations of the cases of dozens of prisoners who could be eligible for probation or early release.

Meanwhile, at a number of other Venezuelan penitentiaries (which number 32 in all, with a total prison population of 19,000), inmates staged hunger strikes and threatened to carry out “blood strikes” by cutting themselves or sewing their lips together, as a means of forcing compliance with similar demands. The authorities managed to swiftly defuse these protests with the offer of negotiations.

The incident at La Pica, however, turned into a long, tense standoff, with the penitentiary surrounded by National Guard (militarised police) officers, and reports that the prisoners were armed with knives, guns and even grenades, with their relatives serving as “human shields”.

Rojas denied that a prisoners-for-hostages swap had been arranged, although during the 12 days that the hostages were held, a number of women and children were let out of the prison, as were dozens of inmates.

The final agreement established that a committee of relatives will monitor the efforts to speed up judicial procedures and sentencing, and that there will be no reprisals against the inmates who staged the hostage-taking or punishment for the family members who willingly took part. The agreement also includes a commitment to improve the conditions at La Pica.

“The prison is in ruins and another remodelling is not possible,” admitted regional lawmaker Marelis Pérez, one of the negotiators.

Pérez confirmed that around 60 prisoners were granted concessions. Several dozen will be released on parole, following an accelerated review of their cases by judges, while 22 will be transferred to other prisons in order to be closer to their families.

The Ministry of the Interior has pledged to speed up the psycho-social evaluations required for each prisoner who claims to be eligible for early release and to rapidly refer them to the courts, which make the final decisions.

“It’s inconceivable that the prisoners would have to go to these extremes simply to get all of the authorities involved to do their jobs,” said Humberto Prado with the non-governmental Venezuelan Prison Observatory.”

Nevertheless, human rights groups condemned the prisoners for holding family members captive, even if many of the “hostages” willingly participated.

“You cannot demand respect for your own rights by violating the rights of others,” said Prado.

For her part, Yolanda Prince of the Centres for Community Learning (CECODAP), a non-governmental children’s advocacy group, told IPS that the fathers, mothers and other relatives who used the children as human shields “committed a crime.”

“We know that the inmates are justified in their demands, and that they suffer horrific prison conditions, but that is no excuse to violate the rights of children and teenagers,” she added.

Prado stressed that “in any event, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the prisoners. Justice delayed is not justice. You can’t stick someone who stole a cell phone in jail for months and months, where he’s exposed to the risk of violent death, or will be converted into a genuine homicidal criminal, when he could be released on bail while awaiting trial.”

Around 400 prisoners die every year in Venezuela, which means at least one a day, noted Prado.

“The state is not capable of protecting the lives of 19,000 prisoners, in a country with so many resources, while in neighbouring Colombia, with a violent conflict involving guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug trafficking cartels, and a prison population of 80,000, there are barely 15 prison deaths a year,” he remarked.

On Thursday, as the agreement that brought an end to the hostage situation at La Pica was being negotiated, three inmates were killed at the Uribana penitentiary in midwestern Venezuela when a knife and gun fight broke out between the occupants of two different cell blocks.

The Venezuelan Congress declared last November that the prison system was in a state of emergency, and offered to approve the economic resources needed to address the situation, while President Hugo Chávez formed a ministerial commission to put the necessary measures into effect, Prado noted.

“The prisoners are tired of waiting, and so are their families. Six months have gone by and they haven’t seen any results from this emergency plan,” the activist concluded.