Venezuelan troops surround prison complex after days of bloody riots

Venezuelan soldiers continued to surround a unit at one of the country's most notoriously overcrowded penitentiaries on Tuesday following days of unrest by inmates that has sparked a series of uprisings and protests inside as well as outside the prison gates.

Some 5,000 National Guard soldiers stormed the El Rodeo I and El Rodeo II prison complexes outside the capital Caracas during a dawn operation on Friday aimed at confiscating weapons and drugs the inmates were hoarding. As soon as word got out that the prisoners were being attacked, distraught family members and loved-ones began gathering outside the prison.

On Sunday, the third day of the battle, fire broke out inside the prison and relatives started a riot as they demanded that soldiers stop their offensive. Troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets to keep people away.

According to the government, only one inmate and two soldiers were killed in El Rodeo I, but prisoners' relatives fear there could be many more dead.

"These are the official figures we have as of now but we cannot account for Rodeo II. As soon as we can enter the unit, we will assess what happened," said Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami at a news conference late Monday.

Soldiers surrounded El Rodeo II where hundreds of prisoners are said to be being held hostage by jail gang leaders. At least 36 prisoners were rescued from El Rodeo II on Monday night by National Guard forces.

Earlier, El Aissami told a radio station that one inmate who had been rescued said to authorities that gang leaders began indiscriminately killing inmates who favored a government intervention in the prison.

"I will only calm down when I get to hug my son," said a mother named María, quoted in the Caracas daily El Universal, whose son is serving time in El Rodeo II.

Of the 4,711 inmates held in the El Rodeo complex, 3,524 began to separate themselves from the leaders of the uprising by moving into the courtyard where they could be rescued, said Deputy Interior Minister Néstor Reverol. As of Monday night, some 2,500 had been taken to other prisons.

Deadly arsenal

The National Guard raid came after a June 12 battle between rival gangs of prisoners left 22 people dead. Prison authorities showed reporters the arsenal of weapons and drugs they had confiscated, including pistols, rifles, grenades, several machine guns and bags filled with cocaine and marijuana.

Violence among drug gangs is a common factor of Venezuela's severely overcrowded prison system. The country's 30 prisons were built to hold about 12,500 prisoners but instead hold around 49,000, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a group that monitors prison conditions. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported that 476 people died inside Venezuelan penitentiaries and another 967 injured from clashes.

President Hugo Chávez, who is in Havana recovering from surgery, hasn't made any public statements about the situation. He has pledged to improve the prison system in the past.