Venezuela’s much-touted prison reform plan appears to be failing, according to recent research that shows how some of the country’s most dangerous criminals control numerous penitentiaries.
By Insight Crime
Aug 26, 2022
After analyszing conditions at 31 of Venezuela’s 52 prisons, the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons (Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones – OVP) found that eight were entirely controlled by prison bosses, known as pranes, while criminal gangs had at least partial control of a further 15 establishments. Only eight were entirely under government control.
In this study published in August, the OVP concluded that over 26,000 prisoners were housed in the prisons run by pranes.
The findings were released just days after Venezuelan authorities celebrated the alleged progress made by a prison reform plan, which began in 2017. This grandiose plan claims to rehabilitate and train inmates, protect teenagers and younger prisoners, and support those who have completed their sentences.
The reality is very different.
Inmates housed in prisons run by gangs “have to pay for everything to survive,” Carolina Girón, the director of OVP, told InSight Crime.
She explained that prisoners must pay the pranes a weekly or monthly fee to guarantee their safety. They must also pay for water, food, and transport to court hearings, as well for any family or conjugal visits. The situation is similar in state-run prisons where guards frequently extort and abuse inmates.
And these prisons hold some of Venezuela’s most influential criminal actors, able to extend their influence prisons outside the walls of the prison and even into other countries.
Here, InSight Crime profiles some of Venezuela’s most notorious pranes.
Alias “Niño Guerrero” – Tocorón Prison, Aragua
Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” is the pran of Tocorón prison, located in the central state of Aragua. He is also the leader of the Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s largest homegrown criminal gang with operations in other Latin American countries.
At Tocorón, Guerrero Flores charges “causes” (causas) from other prisoners to allow them to live there. This fee was set at $8 per week per prisoner as of early 2022, an investigator in Aragua, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told InSight Crime.
Multiplying this amount by the number of inmates in Tocorón – 2,700 according to the OVP’s most recent report on prisons – would mean Niño Guerrero’s operation potentially brings in up to $86,400 per month, or over $1 million per year. And that just covers his protection racket.
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Read More: Insight Crime – The Bosses who run Venezuela’s most Lawless Prisons
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