60 prisoners from Lara joined the hunger strike against overcrowding
About 60 prisoners from the state of Lara joined the hunger strike that another 48 prisoners began on Mondayin protest against overcrowding and procedural delaysreported the non-governmental organization Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP).
Through They demand a boarding plan or transfers to prisonsas demanded by those who started the strike, as detailed by the NGO, which added that the inmates refuse to consume food until they obtain concrete answers.
More than 60 prisoners held in the CICPC subdelegation in San Juan joined the hunger strike to protest the overcrowding and procedural delays of which they are victims in the state. #Lara.
This would be the second headquarters to join this strike carried out by more than 108… pic.twitter.com/AWT0O5gBPX
— Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (@oveprisiones) November 6, 2024
85% of prisoners in the country are in procedural delay
Humberto Prado, director of the OVP, told EFE that the NGO estimates that, Of some 23,000 prisoners in police cells, around 85% are in procedural delay.
This is due, he assured, to the “lack of some parties in the trial, the lack of witnesses appearing,” among others, which causes the case to be deferred.
«The problem is the State. If the prosecutor is not there, there is no one to accuse; If the public lawyer is not there, there is no one to defend; “If there is no judge, there is no one to sentence,” he said.
The OVP stated that the prisoners in Lara went on strike as an extreme measure that reflects “desperation in the face of inhumane prison conditions, in addition to putting pressure on the authorities to respond to their demands.”
Likewise, he warned about the serious and progressive health consequences of a hunger strikesince “it can cause accelerated weight loss, dehydration and deterioration of vital functions.”
The NGO demanded that the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsman urgently address the critical situation, of which the observatory has informed the Inter-American and Universal Human Rights System, with the aim of “making visible the violations suffered by the inmates and press for concrete measures to be taken.
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