The outbreak at the Llanos penitentiary on Friday began with an inmate rally commanding that their relatives be permitted to deliver the food. An armed battle then broke out between inmates and guards, lawmaker María Beatriz Martínez said.
The national guard officer was wounded by a grenade explosion, said Martínez, who had entrance to an early report provided by the town’s security forces. The prison is located in the city of Guanare, 450 kilometres south-west of the capital of Caracas.
Venezuela’s minister of penitentiary services, Iris Varela, confirmed the riot, telling the local newspaper Ultimas Noticias that a group of inmates attacked officers standing guard outside the prison.
The warden was injured by at least one inmate wielding a knife, Varela said.