BY MEGAN ARNEY

A fire killed 25 inmates after prison guards launched incendiary devices into a crowded jail cell in Caracas, Venezuela, October 22. Venezuela's national prisons director, Antonio Marval, admitted October 23 that three guards were responsible for the deaths of the prisoners. He said three guards at La Planta jail, including Capt. Osmen Martínez, the detachment's leader, fired the devices into two cells.

According to the Associated Press, Marval said the fire began after a riot by prisoners. But José Alberto Mejías, one of five inmates who managed to flee, said the guards locked them in the cell after the 6:00 a.m. roll call and fired tear gas canisters at them. Mejías explained how sparks from the canisters started the blaze and "everything caught on fire."

]He denied initial reports from prison officials that inmates had rioted and guards fired tear gas to restore order. "Everybody was calm. Nobody had done anything wrong," Mejías said. Later, Marval said the guards apparently acted out of "wickedness" and "repression."

Like most prisons, Venezuela jails are severely overcrowded - some 1,700 people are housed in a facility made for 1,000 - and living conditions for inmates are horrendous, many do not even have beds.

After the fire, the 12-foot-by-12-foot concrete jail cell was as black as a coal mine. Several hundred inmates demonstrated at the jail entrance for several hours to prevent authorities from entering to transport the bodies. The inmates demanded that reporters and lawyers from the attorney general's office enter the burned cell block ahead of the National Guard so they could give their side of the story.

This is the worst incident in a Venezuelan penitentiary since 1994, when a blaze at Sabaneta Prison in Maracaibo killed 108 inmates.  
 
 
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