Venezuela's lethal jails become hot election-year issue

The number of killings inside Venezuela's notoriously violent prisons has increased this year even as President faces mounting pressure to curtail the violence as he campaigns for re-election, a human rights group says.

Riots and clashes between rival gangs in Venezuelan prisons left 304 inmates dead during the first half of this year, a 15 per cent increase on the same period last year, according to the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory.

Prison violence killed a total of 476 prisoners in 2010, the watchdog group said.

Unrest and overcrowding within Venezuela's 33 prisons have become major problems for Chavez's Government.

Violence is common and inmates obtain weapons and drugs from corrupt guards.

After last year's deadly armed uprising at two prisons just outside the capital, Caracas, Chavez announced plans to restructure the penitentiary system, promising to improve living conditions and speed up trials for inmates who have not been sentenced.

Opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles has strongly criticised the Government's failure to stem prison violence and vowed to resolve the problem if he defeats Chavez in the upcoming election.

Venezuela's 33 prisons were built to hold about 12,000 inmates, but officials have said the prisons now hold about 47,000.

- AP