1000 friends and family members of inmates are currently occupying a prison in Venezuela. This in protest against the judicial system, and prison conditions and brutality. The Venezuelan government believes the occupation to be part of a CIA backed plot to destabilise the country.

Around one thousand friends and family members of inmates held within Venezuelan prisons, have today entered the Yare prison near Caracas, and have refused to leave. They are made up of around 800 women, 150 children, and a handful of men.

They are protesting against the barbaric and cramped conditions that Venezuelan prisoners are kept in, the long delays in court proceeding, and the abuse handed out by prison officers. Currently, there are 45,000 prisoners in cells designed for a maximum of 14,000 prisoners.

Prisons in Venezuela are well known for being massively over-crowded and extremely violent. There is an average of around three hundred inmates killed each year, by prison guards, and by other inmates; however, in the last two years over 900 inmates have been killed.

The minister for prisons, Iris Varela, said that, “This is not the right way to apply pressure”, and alleged that protesters are part of a secret CIA backed sabotage operation.

This is the eleventh time in the recent past that an occupation of this kind has happened in Venezuela.

Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, has instructed authorities to negotiate peacefully.