Inmates at Venezuela’s western Barinas prison staged a protest on its roof on Sunday, piling flaming mattresses and calling for the removal of the facility’s director, whom they accused of overseeing guards as they shot unarmed prisoners.
“We want justice. They are shooting us, the guards and the wardens,” a prisoner said in a video shared by the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, a local NGO, on X, in which a man is seen with a bullet wound in his chest.
Inmates said they were peacefully protesting when prison staff opened fire and left some wounded.
Prisoners in Venezuela’s western Barinas prison staged a protest on the roof of the detention center, piling flaming mattresses and calling for the removal of the prison’s director, who they said had overseen guards as they shot unarmed prisoners https://t.co/ppPYwrAVCN pic.twitter.com/14fHembgYs
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 25, 2026
🇻🇪 Inmates at the Barinas Judicial Internment Center in Venezuela are demanding the removal of new director Elvis Macuare Guerrero, accusing him of violent raids, isolation, and torture.
Outside the prison, families fear what could happen next.pic.twitter.com/uux4zUPr29
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 25, 2026
