Venezuela freed more than 2,000 inmates to improve conditions in its violent and overcrowded prisons at the start of what could be a much larger amnesty across the South American nation, state media said on Friday. With about 50,000 prisoners confined to ageing facilities designed to hold just 13,000, the penal system is in chaos, rights campaigners and government officials say.
The prisons crisis is a big issue ahead of next year's election, where President Hugo Chavez aims for another six-year term. It drew world attention in June when thousands of troops stormed one jail, guns blazing, to end a deadly insurrection. State news agency AVN said the release program only applied to inmates serving sentences of five years or fewer and who had behaved well. Factors such as the crime committed and its impact on society were also taken into account. "These 2,000 are citizens who are now outside the prison walls and are returning to their normal lives," the head of the Supreme Court, Judge Luisa Morales, told state TV.
"This is not indiscriminate. Do not think the idea is that anyone who asks to be released is going to be freed ... We must ensure that the people released under these conditions really have the possibility to rejoin society." It was unclear how many more inmates might eventually be freed under the program. New Prisons Minister Iris Varela has told a local newspaper that as many as 20,000 detainees posed no risk to the public and should be released.
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