Rights groups warn Venezuela quakes worsened conditions for political prisoners

Human rights organisations said hundreds of political prisoners in Venezuela are facing a "double tragedy" after powerful earthquakes struck the country a month ago.

The twin tremors hit northern Venezuela on June 24. The source reported that the humanitarian crisis that followed worsened an already tense political situation. It said interim leader Delcy Rodriguez took power after US forces ousted president Nicolas Maduro in January and has governed under Washington's watch since then.

Rodriguez passed an amnesty bill intended to free hundreds of people imprisoned during Maduro's rule. However, the rights group Foro Penal said 372 political prisoners remain behind bars.

Andreina Baduel, an activist with the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, said the detainees were already living through a calamity and that the earthquakes had turned it into a double tragedy. She said there had been no timely state response to evacuate political prisoners.

Baduel, who is campaigning for the release of her brother, cited delayed evacuations at several facilities and serious damage to parts of the Ramo Verde military prison near Caracas. She said detainees there had been forced to remain in their cells because they were being threatened with transfers to other prisons.

Oscar Murillo, coordinator of the NGO Proveo, said the crisis caused by the earthquakes could not put what he called the struggle for freedom and democracy on hold.

The two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, struck within a minute of each other on June 24. The source said the coastal state of La Guaira, north of Caracas, was hit particularly hard. Official figures cited by the source put the death toll at more than 5,000, with almost 17,000 people injured and hundreds of buildings destroyed.