Venezuelan Prison Riot Leaves at Least 46 Dead, 60 Injured: Lawmaker, NGO

A billboard depicting late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is seen on May 25, 2019 on the roof of the police station jail where prisoners were killed during clashes on the eve, in the town of Acarigua, in the Venezuelan state of Portugues. Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images

CARACAS—A prison riot in the western Venezuelan state of Portuguesa has left at least 46 people dead and 60 injured, according to a rights group and an opposition lawmaker.

Beatriz Giron, director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons which advocates for inmates’ rights, said 46 bodies had been identified after the incident on Friday at the Los Llanos penitentiary. The South American country’s prisons are infamous for extreme levels of violence and poor conditions.