Hunger strikes hit jails ... prisons protesting again slow trial and life inside

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Prisoners are on hunger strike at half a dozen prisons around the country in a series of protests against the state of the jails and the slowness of judicial proceedings.

The latest inmates to join the protest are at Tocorón jail in Aragua state, where prisoners declared a hunger strike at six o'clock on Monday morning. By then, prisoners at El Rodeo I and II, Yare I and II and La Planta – some of the most notoriously tough jails in the country – were already on hunger strike.

At Vista Hermosa in Bolívar state, 25 relatives of inmates refused to leave the jail after visiting hours on Sunday. They wanted improvements in trial proceedings and prison conditions behind bars, and three children were said to be among them.

Pressure grew among prisoners at Los Teques prison south of Caracas for them to join the hunger strikes. Two inmates were reported to have been shot inside the prison, after declining to join the measure. The jail houses some of the most violent and dangerous prisoners in the country.