The red bus was not available
After officially acknowledging the death of 58 people in the violent events of January 25th, Prisons Minister Iris Varela ordered the transfer of Uribana Prison’s remaining inmates to other jails.
Most of them are now ensconced in Yaracuy State Prison next door, where the overall conditions aren’t any better.
There’s no hint about the long term future of what once was called the “model prison for the transformation of Venezuela’s penitentiary system”. It was built during the second Caldera administration and then opened by the first Justice Minister of the Chávez era, Ignacio Arcaya.
Uribana was planned to hold 891 inmates tops. But Varela admitted in a press conference that the last count of inmates (before the events) was 2,459, almost three times more. The majority of those inmates have not been sentenced, but are facing trial or waiting for one. The Prisons Ministry (in charge now of taking them to court) constantly fails to move the process along, causing most of the trials to be delayed.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly created a special commission to investigate what happened, but no opposition deputies were invited. It looks more like a rubber-stamping mission than a fact-finding one. There’s has been criticism of Varela’s “handling” of the crisis, which is the same plan she has applied before: shut down the troubled prison, move the inmates to other jails, and wait for the whole thing to blow over.
Sadly, the problem doesn’t go away. It just goes somewhere else: in this case, Tocuyito.
Chavista logic.
Problem: Venezuelan jails are overcrowded. Solution: Destroy 2 jails.
Really?
I couldn’t be this stupid even If I did a Master’s degree in Stupidity.
countdown to PSF defence that the Uribana tragedy was the media’s fault, maybe even another whiny letter to the ombudsman of the New York Times (what a rookie) …
well, clearly what is going on is that the jails have improved so much under Chavez that there is now an increased demand for cell space. why do you oppos insist on seeing it as a negative?
I like the policy of emptying out the prisons so they can be “cleaned” of weapons. As if they just appear, like hormigas and hongos. Is Iris Varela even sane?
How does Chavez rationale his failure to ameliorate the deplorable conditions in the prisons? After his own experience in the early 90s wasn’t that one thing he vowed to improve?
Oh well, they deleted the tweet, at least it got archived here for history. Here’s a screenshot of it: https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/67066_10151220910177142_2083862596_n.jpg
Plop! But to be honest even my grandmother warned me about this, back around 1983! In fact in 1983 a friend of hers got beaten up by thieves, they had snatched a pearl collar from her and discovered they were fake came back on a motorcycle and punched her “for wearing fake”. Venezuela took the road towards a lawless, savage failed statehood decades ago. Chavismo only stepped on the accelerator. Oh yes and in 1983 we were plastered with Bolivar quotes all over the place (personality cult en marche).
The New Statesman published a special issue on Chávez. This is one of the best articles: http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/south-america/2013/01/elected-autocrat