29 Dead After Riot In Venezuelan Prison

Rival factions clashed inside Venezuela’s notorious El Dorado prison Thursday, leaving at least 29 prisoners dead. Some victims were beheaded, a local official said. Thirteen were seriously injured.

Details about the riot were sketchy because the prison, located in a remote area of the Amazon Jungle near the country’s southern border with Brazil, lacks telephone service.

Initial reports put the death toll at 42, the Justice Ministry later reduced the estimate to 29.

“The dead inmates are mostly Guajiro (Indians), 12 of whom were killed by knife and then burned,” the ministry said in a one-page statement faxed to news agencies. “Two of them were decapitated.”

The focus of Thursday’s fighting was between El Dorado’s longtime inmates and members of a gang who were transferred to the prison from Sabaneta in November.