99
Prisiones [Venezuelan Prisons Observatory] (OVP) presented the following figures on the
recorded number of inmates killed and injured in the last 12 years: 310
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total
Number of deaths
390
338
300
244
250
402
408
412
498
422
366
476
4,506
Number of injured
1,695
1,255
1,285
1,249
903
1,428
727
982
1,023
854
635
967
12,518
276.
The OVP suggested that the extreme violence in the prisons also affects
the families of inmates, 311 and provided information according to which, in 2010, four
relatives (all women) of inmates were killed with firearms in incidents that occurred at the
following prisons: Carabobo Judicial Confinement Center (“Tocuyito”), Los Teques Judicial
Confinement Center, and the Venezuela General Penitentiary (PGV).
277.
A significant number of provisional measures concerning persons
deprived of liberty which the IACHR has requested and pursued before the Inter‐American
Court –and which the latter has granted–��have been based on the existence of serious and
urgent situations arising from patterns of prison violence with alarmingly high numbers of
persons killed and injured. During these incidents, States were unable or unprepared to
ensure internal security or adopt the necessary preventive measures to avert or minimize
the effects of violence.
310
IACHR, Public hearing: Situation of Persons Deprived of Liberty in Venezuela, 141º Ordinary Period of
Sessions, Participants: State of Venezuela, Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Observatorio
Venezolano de Prisiones (OVP), Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Federación de Abogados de Venezuela,
March 29, 2011. The OVP also stated in this hearing that in 2010 there had been prison riots in which several
people had been killed and injured at the following detention facilities: Aragua Penitentiary Center (“Tocorón”);
Capital Region Penitentiary Center (“Yare”); Centro Occidental Penitentiary Center (“Uribana”); El Paraíso
Reeducation and Craftwork Center (“La Planta”); Occidente Penitentiary Center (“Santa Ana”); the Venezuela
General Penitentiary (PGV); Maracaibo National Prison (“Sabaneta”); Los Teques Judicial Confinement Center; and
San Antonio Judicial Confinement Center (“Margarita”). The first three prisons mentioned above are currently
under provisional measures ordered by the Inter‐American Court.
311
See in this regard, I/A Court H.R., Matter of the Penitentiary Center of the Central Occidental Region
(Uribana Prison) regarding Venezuela, Order of the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights of February 2, 2007,
Having seen, para. 2(g).
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