The upheaval at the Llanos penitentiary on Friday started with an inmate protest demanding that their relatives be allowed to deliver them food. An armed confrontation then broke out between inmates and guards, lawmaker Maria Beatriz Martinez said, AP reported.
The National Guard officer was injured by a grenade explosion, said Martinez, who had access to an early report prepared by the town’s security forces. The prison is located in the city of Guanare, 450 kilometers 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.
Venezuela has roughly 30 prisons and 500 jails that can hold an estimated 110,000 inmates.