Inside Venezuela’s brutal jails where inmates carry machine guns & prisoners are caged in tiny cells for YEARS
Inmates are pictured toting grenades and massive machine guns as they run market stalls selling crack cocaine
VENEZUELAN prisons are plagued by gangs who prowl the corridors armed with machine guns, grenades and knives – terrorising inmates and guards alike.
Despite President Nicolas Maduro executing a crackdown after his disputable re-election last year, thugs are still running circles around the guards.
Venezuela‘s most infamous prison, Tocoron, once doubled as the headquarters for the bloodthirsty gang Tren de Aragua.
The jailhouse was governed by criminal gangs led by a “pran,” or kingpin, who enforced practically a dictatorship over the site and tormented its inmates.
Gang members were free to roam inside the jail, which had hotel-like facilities such as a pool, nightclub, and even a zoo.
They toted grenades and massive machine guns as they ran market stalls selling crack cocaine.
And wives, girlfriends and kids were also allowed to come and go virtually as they pleased with bizarre Disney-themed parties, music festivals and raves held at the weekends.
Gay inmates were also banished to live on the roofs.
Those that broke the “rules” were shot by ruthless enforcers called ‘Watchmen‘ using stolen cop guns made to order in specialised jailhouse workshops.
Despite President Marudo orchestrating a crackdown on Tocoron in 2023, Amnesty International told The Sun that the prison still remains in a dire state – with whom it’s being run by remaining “unknown”.
Valentina Ballesta, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of Research for South America said that inmates in Tocoron only receive “two glasses of water per day” and are “lucky” if they receive two meals a day – but they’re “often rotten or bad”.
She added that the governmental intervention “ended up being a very complicated situation of violence and concerns over human rights violations”.
Other reports support the claim that Maduro ending the “pranato” era of prisons, predominantly Tocoro, is unfounded.
The takeovers resulted in very little significant arrests, with just officials from the Ministry of Penitentiary Services detained, according to reports.
Meanwhile the location of Tren de Aragua’s primary leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, otherwise known as Nino Guerrero, who was being held in Tocoron, remains unknown.
The evil gangster may have even negotiated an escape with the government days before the prison raid, according to sources who spoke to
Valentina also explained how, due to the dire conditions imprisoned men, women and children are kept in, their families have to step in to ensure they are kept alive.
Valentina told The Sun: “ By September last year, we are talking about 184 per cent of [the prisons] exceeded capacity.
“ The state does not provide or fulfill their basic needs.
“I’m talking about food, water and medicines and even like basic goods that you need, for example, a bed or clothes.
“This is the general practice – when a person is imprisoned, then their families are also urged, basically, to fulfill their family needs.
“They have to go, for example, almost every day to bring them food or to provide them water and the amount of arbitrariness around how this happened and how the system works is absolutely in detriment of human rights.”
A report conducted by Amnesty International found that there were around 129 children kept under detention conditions with adults who were subjected to torture.
Valentina explained how there was also evidence of the children having “suicidal thoughts” due to what they were put through with detention centres used “as a form of punishment”.
The children were detained for political protests following Maduro’s disputable re-election last year.
Other protesters who were detained following the voting uproar have even been thrown into the gang-run Tocoron.
Valentina said: “ We’ve seen in the last couple of months the government sending out those who have been under detention after the elections being sent out to this [Tocoron] prison center.
“So putting people that we believe are arbitrarily detained under the risk and threat of this amount of violence.”
She added that the “life and integrity of those in prison in these centres are not guaranteed by the state”.
On July 28 last year, Venezuelans cast ballots for their next president – but shortly after the polls closed, Maduro was declared the winner by election officials.
But the result was announced with no breakdown of voting statistics, with the opposition coalition slamming Maduro and accusing his government of foul play.
It then released what appeared to be copies of the official voting tallies which showed Maduro had lost by a wide margin.
Thousands of protesters were locked up and, just as the children had endured, other political prisoners were subjected to torture too.
Valentina said: “We’ve seen many cases of people being denied of visits or being denied of their medicines or being even denied of health services.
“ We have seen, for example, consistent reports that detention centers were shut down and no inmates were granted visits or in any form.
“Like they couldn’t be visited by families or by inmates.
“Or by their lawyers, and even if their families were providing them with food, or with medicines, or with water, they were retaining all of these goods and acting as an obstacle for families to try to get to their loved ones that are under detention.”
In the lead-up to Maduro’s third inauguration on January 10 this year, the government bragged that it had released close to 1,515 of those locked up in the post-election violence.
Despite it being good news of political prisoners being released, the prison system in Venezuela remains in a dire state, reports claim, with desperate need for reform.
El Salvador's mega-prison
By, Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
IN El Salvador, a single phone call can get you locked up and packed in an iron-barred cell with murderous gangsters.
The country has historically been torn apart by armed violence and over the last two years embarked on aggressive policies to lock up any suspected gang members for life.
Incredible images show thousands of violent skinhead gangsters from the country’s main gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, crammed into an inescapable mega-prison.
Pictures show rows and rows of prisoners sitting with their hands behind their shaved heads at the high-tech prison.
Other images reveal gang members stripped down to only white shorts running through the facility.
Meanwhile, prison officers armed with assault rifles are guarding the inmates.
Amnesty International’s Irene Cuellar spoke to The Sun about El Salvador’s state of emergency and the mass incarceration.
She said: “Right now, we have the highest incarceration rate in the country – in the world.
“In El Salvador, almost 2 per cent of its population are in jail.”
But Irene explained how among those captive are those who face life behind bars without any proof they were a part of a crime – due to anonymous tips.
She continued: “Most of them have not been found guilty. They are still under this legal status that is pre-trial detention.”
El Salvadorians may be fearing any enemies as being arrested and thrown in prison via “criminal association” has become a common practice.