CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK), EL NACIONAL (Venezuela)
CARACAS – Venezuela prison minister Iris Varela has confirmed that at least 20 people were killed after violence broke out in a Venezuelan jail, reports El Nacional.
The violence occurred between rival gangs, with one of the dead a relative of an inmate, in Yare prison, south of Caracas, BBC News reports. The situation is now under control according to Iris Varela.
“There was a confrontation between two heavily armed groups inside the prison,” Varela said.
Officials blame inmates for trying to take over the prison, says CNN.
The prison is located in the northern state of Miranda, where at least 25 people died in a riot in another prison last year.
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, protests and violent clashes between rival gangs in Venezuela’s overcrowded prisons led to more than 500 deaths last year, reports BBC News.
Last month, similar waves of violence erupted in the Cepri penitentiary and lasted over 20 days.
