Venezuela arrests warden of prison where inmates died of poisoning

Caracas, Nov 29 (EFE).- Venezuelan authorities have arrested the warden of a prison where a group of inmates died this week after allegedly indiscriminately consuming a variety of medicines.

Julio Cesar Perez, the director of the Uribana prison near the northwestern city of Barquisimeto, was detained on Friday, two days after the Penitentiary Services Ministry confirmed that 13 inmates died after ingesting numerous medicines as part of an act of "insubordination" aimed at forcing him to step down.

The ministry has not provided any further updates.

But the non-governmental organization Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, or OVP, says 35 inmates died and 60 others have been hospitalized, and ruling-party lawmaker William Ojeda confirmed that figure on Friday in an interview with the Venezuelan legislature's TV station.

Authorities have not yet cleared up the circumstances surrounding the poisonings, while the OVP is demanding that independent toxicology tests be conducted to determine the cause of the prisoners' deaths.

In October 2012, Venezuela's government declared a prison infrastructure emergency after 304 inmates were killed and 527 were injured in fights and riots in the first quarter of that year.

Since then, the government has implemented strict disciplinary regimes aimed at removing weapons from the nation's penitentiaries and eradicating prison gangs.

The OVP, however, said in August that 150 inmates died and 110 were injured in the first half of this year, adding that the "serious problems in the prisons still lack a structural solution" and criticizing the government for trying to solve the problem by military means.

A total of 506 inmates died in Venezuelan prisons in 2013, down from 591 in 2012 and 560 in 2011, according to the OVP.