Venezuelan prison deaths total 498 in ‘07

CARACAS, Venezuela — More than an inmate a day were killed in Venezuela’s crowded prisons last year, as riots and weapons trafficking ran rampant behind bars, a human rights group said in a report Wednesday.

Some 498 Venezuelan prisoners were killed in riots and other violent acts in 2007, up from 412 in 2006, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, the leading prison watchdog in Venezuela. The group has monitored jail conditions in the country for more than five years and conducts regular prison visits.

So far this year, at least 15 prisoners have died, the group’s director, Humberto Prado, said while presenting the report — complete with photos of mutilated prisoners’ bodies.