Venezuela sends hundreds to maximum security jails after election: NGO

Over 700 arrested protesters in Venezuela transferred to maximum security prisons amid disputed election fallout.

More than 700 people arrested during protests that erupted after Venezuela's disputed presidential election have been transferred to maximum security prisons, a human rights group said Saturday, August 31, 2024.

The detainees, who had been held at police stations around the country, were transferred over the past week to two notorious prisons that were previously controlled by gangs, the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said.

“In many cases, the transfers were conducted under questionable circumstances, with detainees’ relatives not informed of the moves to Tocuyito and Tocoron prisons,” the group said.

"They were conducted with many irregularities," the NGO said in a press release.

More than 2,400 people were arrested after the protests that broke out after President Nicolas Maduro was declared winner of the disputed July 28 election.

The Opposition claims it won by a landslide and has voting records to prove this.

The leftist Maduro government, brushing off accusations of authoritarianism, has resisted intense international pressure to release vote tally numbers to back up its claim of victory.