Valencia, Venezuela
“I want justice for my son,” said Rocky Varlea, 53, whose 27-year-old son was killed in the blaze, his voice shaking. “Those who did this should pay.”
The fast-moving fire on Wednesday swept through a station where prisoners were being kept in crowded cells, becoming one of the worst jail catastrophes in Venezuela’s history. Human rights advocates quickly blamed authorities for failing to address deteriorating conditions in jails and prisons as the country slides further into economic ruin.
“The negligence of authorities continues causing deaths,” the nongovernmental Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said in a statement.
Venezuela chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab announced late Wednesday on Twitter that 66 men and two women had been killed. He said four prosecutors were being assigned to determine what happened and who was responsible for the tragedy in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state 100 miles west of Caracas, the capital.
He promised a “thorough investigation to immediately shed light on the painful events that have put dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning.”
As Venezuela plummets into an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression, prisoners in often crowded jails are going hungry and have staged protests in recent months. Inmates also frequently obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups who control cellblock fiefdoms.
The United Nations’ human rights office said it was “appalled at the horrific deaths” and urged Venezuela to quickly address concerns like judicial delays, the excessive use of pre-trial detention and cramped quarters that can lead to violence and riots.
“We call on the Venezuelan government to adopt immediate measures to address the conditions of detention to ensure that they comply with international human rights norms and standards,” the organization said.
The death toll in Wednesday’s disaster surpasses nearly every recent mass casualty event at Venezuelan prisons and jails. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994. In 2013, 61 people were killed and over 100 injured, mostly from bullet wounds, after a riot in Barquisimeto.
With tears streaking down their cheeks, people waiting outside the station on Wednesday said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions and they feared the worst for their loved ones. Angry relatives pushed up against a line of officers holding metal shields. At one point, officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.