Inmates organize protests in Bolivian prison due to “injustices”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The inmates of the El Abra prison in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba held a protest this Monday, June 27, to demand an end to the “injustices” in the controls on their visits and the impediments for their relatives to bring them food and clothing.

During the morning, several groups of inmates lit bonfires, chanting songs inside the prison, while the police and internal security intervened using tear gas.

In statements to the media, a woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the inmates and who kept her identity confidential said that there is dissatisfaction with the strictness of the entry controls, that there are “injustices,” and that “they prohibit everything” to the visitors.

“They prohibit everything; not even fruit can enter. No clothes enter, nothing enters, the children of the inmates cannot enter with other people if it is not the mother or the legal guardian,” he said.

Among the little allowed in are “five bananas” for each inmate, which is insufficient because many inmates have chosen not to eat the food from the prison’s dining hall, the woman said.

“The food from the dining room itself is disgusting; not even the dog eats the food they give; we can no longer be like this,” she said.

In a statement, the Directorate of Penitentiary Regime clarified that the protest is “against the director of the penitentiary” and that there are demands “for the entry of supplies for handicrafts, carpentry, and locksmith work”.

According to the agency under the Ministry of Government (Interior), around midday, “the protests were already lifted by the prison population” while a commission of the area entered to provide “solutions to the requests”.

However, despite this announcement, the shouting and protests continued, and the relatives of the inmates were stationed on the external fence and placed posters to demand the resignation of the director, according to some local media.

In its communiqué, the Directorate of Penitentiary Regime ruled out that the population had taken up the claim against a foreign inmate accused of participating in the murder of three security officers a week ago in the outskirts of Santa Cruz, in the eastern part of the country.

However, when consulted on the matter, the woman who spoke to the media said that the prisoner’s transfer to El Abra could lead to even more scrutiny against visitors due to the sensitivity of the case, which is related to drug trafficking.

Early Saturday morning, a judge ordered that the three accused of the murder of the three officers be transferred to prisons in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz.

However, one of them, who was even taken to a prison in La Paz for being the main accused, obtained a court order for his return to the city of Santa Cruz.

With information from El Universo