11 dead, 28 wounded in Venezuela prison riot
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At least 11 people have been killed and 28 wounded in a prison riot in northern Venezuela, authorities and rights groups said Friday, the second protest in a week to erupt in the country’s overcrowded prisons.

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"There was an uprising resulting in 11 deaths, including two guards and nine prisoners," Carlos Nieto, the director of prisoners' rights group A Window on Freedom, told AFP news agency.

The numbers were confirmed by Venezuela’s Prisons Minister Iris Varela who added the riot at the Fenix prison in the town of Iribarren was now under control and would be investigated by the prosecutor's office.

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Relatives of inmates wait outside a prison where a riot left at least 11 people dead in Irribarren, northern Venezuela, May 18, 2018. (Photos: VCG)

The riot erupted on Thursday. Inmates snatched a gun from a guard, sparking a 20-minute shootout, A Window on Freedom said, quoting family members of the victims.

About 100 relatives of the prisoners gathered at the prison on Friday, seeking information about the deadly violence, while in the morgue in the nearby town of Barquisimeto, others came to identify the dead, some of them with bullet or stab wounds.

The bodies of the 11 dead are "in terrible condition, a lot of wounded, stabbed, shot. Thank God my brother is not there," said one female relative of a prisoner, who asked not to be identified.

Venezuela's prisons suffer from dire overcrowding and a shortage of basic supplies, struggling under the deepening economic crisis that is gripping the once-wealthy oil-producing country.

Nearly 400 people have died in the country's prisons since 2011, according to official figures and rights groups.

The latest riot comes just days after another protest at the Helicoide prison complex in Caracas.

No one died in that incident but the US government called for the release of one of its nationals, a Mormon missionary who put out a cry for help via social media as the riot was going on.

(Top image: Inmates receive military training at the El Rodeo prison in Guatire, Venezuela, July 1, 2016.)