Venezuela transforms penitentiary system

Venezuela has transformed its penitentiary system based on a new model of respecting human rights and disarming prisoners, Minister of Penitentiary Affairs Iris Varela said Monday. "We have launched a new prison system, among other initiatives, dismantling the old model left over by the capitalist system of bribery," Varela told the official television network. The minister, highly criticized by the opposition and certain human rights organizations, said that her government has worked hard to transform the prison system controlled by mafia and corrupt military officials. Actions were taken in the last few months in different prisons to disarm prisoners, the minister said, adding the authorities had taken other actions to eliminate cases of judicial delays and free inmates who have completed their sentences without a trial or have shown good behavior in the years of imprisonment. Varela said that the government "guarantees the human rights of all prisoners and we are working to transform their way of thinking so they can be educated or engage in a job useful to society." The authorities have regained control of the prisons in the country and more than 80 percent of them have been disarmed, which is part of the government strategy to eradicate the disorder in the prisons after the creation of the Ministry of Penitentiary Affairs in 2009. One of the main policies of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is to humanize the country's penitentiary system.