#WORLD NEWS AUGUST 16, 2017 / 6:21 PM / 16 MINUTES AGO

Thirty-seven inmates killed in government raid on Venezuelan prison

Maria Ramirez
2 MIN READ

PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela (Reuters) - Thirty-seven inmates were killed during an overnight raid by government security forces on a prison in Venezuela's southern jungle state of Amazonas, the governor said on Wednesday.

Human rights advocates have long complained that violent gangs exercise de facto control over many of the chaotic country's prisons and have ready access to automatic weapons and even hand grenades.

The government seeks to reassert control over understaffed prison facilities by sending in special forces from time to time, but deadly confrontations often ensue.

"There was a massacre," tweeted Liborio Guarulla, the Amazonas governor, who said 37 prisoners had been killed.

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