Last year, Venezuelan authorities intervened in seven prisons through extensive military and police operations, dismantling eight “prison mafias.” including the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, from which it operated Tocorón, one of the penitentiary centers taken over by the government.

Last Thursday, the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), with a large pro-government majority, reported that some 54,000 people have been released from prison in Venezuela since June 2021, when the government created a commission with the aim of a “ judicial revolution.”

Every prisoner was interviewed

The first vice president of the Commission for Internal Policies, Julio García, quoted in an AN press release, explained that deputies and a “multidisciplinary team from the judiciary” reviewed “each file” and They interviewed the detainees ‘personally’, who were held in a total of 543 detention centers.

This “Special Commission for the Judicial Revolution” was created by President Nicolás Maduro to solve overcrowding in detention centers and optimize procedural processes.

Last November, several institutions agreed to speed up the judicial processes of those deprived of their liberty, whose cases are causing delays of months or years, according to non-governmental organizations.

Penitentiaries without guns or drugs

García assured that crime rates have not increased after the releases, which “have remained at a minimum thanks to the support of security services,” while The penitentiary centers are fully controlled, without ‘distribution of drugs or weapons’.

Officials seized 605 firearms, 862 knives and 399,587 ammunition, according to the official balance sheet, which also explains the recovery of 4,015 places in these centers and the transfer of more than 8,000 prisoners to other prisons.

Following this operation, non-governmental organizations warned of an increase in overcrowding as a result of these transfers. (JO)