Venezuelan Prison Director Elvis Macuare Guerrero Sacked After Inmates Protest Alleged Mistreatment at Barinas Jail

Venezuelan prison director Elvis Macuare Guerrero was sacked after violent clashes between security forces and inmates protesting alleged mistreatment at the Barinas jail known as Injuba.

“Venezuelan prison director sacked as inmates allege mistreatment The director of a prison in the Venezuelan state of Barinas has been sacked after violent clashes between security forces and inmates protesting over their alleged mistreatment”

BBC

BBC reported that Macuare had been in charge for just a week before he was dismissed on Monday, after prisoners accused him of stopping family visits and punishing them by keeping them in solitary confinement.

BBC

The BBC said the inmates’ complaints had gone unheard for a week, triggering a protest in which they climbed the prison roof and burned mattresses and bed sheets, while extra security forces were deployed on Sunday.

In footage published by Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP), the BBC said a man could be seen showing wounds on his torso and his arm, while another man shouted "they're shooting at us" as others chanted "we want justice."

The BBC added that on Monday, small groups of inmates remained on the roof even after the director’s sacking was announced, and more than 100 prisoners were moved by bus to other penitentiaries.

At Venezuela’s western Barinas prison, inmates staged their protest on Sunday by piling flaming mattresses and calling for the removal of the facility’s director, whom they accused of overseeing guards as they shot unarmed prisoners.

The Guardian quoted a prisoner saying in a video shared by the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons, "We want justice. They are shooting us, the guards and the wardens," as a man with a bullet wound in his chest appeared on screen.

ColombiaOne

The Guardian reported that inmates said they were peacefully protesting when prison staff opened fire and left some wounded, and it described columns of smoke rising from burning mattresses and sheets as prisoners chanted, “No more torture!”

The Guardian also reported that Yelitza Arrollo told AFP she had not heard from her son, an inmate at the prison, since 8 May, adding, “We want the director removed.”

The BBC said OVP warned that relatives of the inmates had not been given any information about possible transfers and were growing increasingly anxious as more than 100 prisoners were moved by bus.

Beyond Injuba, the BBC tied Venezuela’s prison conditions to broader political detention dynamics, saying the United States seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a military operation in the capital, Caracas, on 3 January, and that US pressure had led to the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

“Gabriel José Rodríguez Méndez is 17 years old, and on Tuesday, December 16, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for terrorism, incitement to hatred, and the closing of public roads, according to his family to the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners”

El Estímulo

The BBC said that while more than 400 political prisoners remained behind bars, according to Foro Penal, Venezuela’s Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners expressed solidarity with inmates at Injuba and alleged that “punishment, hunger, solitary confinement, torture and inhumane conditions” were being used to control and subdue prisoners.

ColombiaOne reported that Venezuela freed three former officers of the now-dissolved Policía Metropolitana de Caracas—Erasmo Bolívar, Héctor Rovaín, and Luis Molina—on the night of Tuesday, May 19, 2026, after 23 years of uninterrupted detention.

ColombiaOne said Foro Penal’s director Gonzalo Himiob confirmed on Wednesday morning that his organization had verified far fewer than 300 releases by that point, after Jorge Rodríguez announced earlier in the week that Venezuela would release 300 detainees before Thursday, May 21, 2026.

El Estímulo described another case of detention and sentencing in Venezuela, saying Gabriel José Rodríguez Méndez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for terrorism, incitement to hatred, and the closing of public roads, and that his family said there was not a single solid piece of evidence to support such accusations.