Guard’s fire ignited deadly Venezuela jail blaze

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Flames that roared through the holding cell at La Planta jail in downtown Caracas early Tuesday caused one of the worst tragedies in a prison system that human rights groups have severely criticized.

National Prisons Director Antonio Marval, who interviewed prisoners and jail officials, said both sides told him that three National Guardsmen, now detained for interrogation, tossed the devices, possibly Molotov cocktails, into the cells.

Asked why they did that, Marval said it apparently was out of "wickedness" and "repression." The guards could be charged with "premeditated murder" he told the Associated Press.

The city morgue said today that 25 inmates had died, lowering earlier estimates of 26 dead.

Marval had said Tuesday the fire began after a riot by inmates.

After the fire, the 12-foot-by-12-foot concrete jail cell was as black as a coal mine. Piled on top of one another were the bodies, some of them embracing. Most of their hair and clothes were burned off, their tongues protruding, their eyes opened wide in terror.

Two metal bunk beds were about the only things in the cell that weren't burned to ashes. Most of the prisoners had slept in hammocks or on the floor. The blaze consumed their bedding and clothes.

The few survivors described the horror.

Jose Alberto Mejias, 31, was one of five inmates from the cell who managed to flee. He said guards locked them in the cell after 6 a.m. roll call and fired tear gas canisters at them. The canisters produced sparks and "everything caught fire."

"I stayed calm ... I climbed up a wall and crawled into a hole and passed through to another cell ... The other guys couldn't get out," he said.

Mejias denied initial reports from authorities that prisoners had rioted and guards fired the tear gas canisters to restore order.

"Everybody was calm. Nobody had done anything wrong," he said.

Most Venezuela jails are severely overcrowded. Facilities are run down and supervision is minimal. There were 25 guards to watch over 1,700 inmates at La Planta, which was built to house 1,000 people, Marval said.

"This is a crime against Venezuela and against humanity," Justice Minister Henrique Meier said of the deaths. "This cannot remain unpunished."

The victims' bodies were taken to the city morgue late Tuesday. Several hundred inmates, some armed with sharp pieces of metal and homemade handguns, had congregated at the jail entrance for several hours to prevent authorities from entering to transport the bodies.

They were demanding that reporters and lawyers from the Attorney General's office enter the burned cellblock ahead of the National Guard so they could give their version of events.

Anxious family members of inmates waited outside the jail for hours trying to learn the fate of their loved ones.

"We just want to know if they're dead or alive," said Maria Abreu, 62, whose son is an inmate at La Planta.

The incident was the worst of its kind for a Venezuela jail since the 1994 riot and fire at Sabaneta Prison in Maracaibo in which 108 inmates died.