Arrested with heart disease dies in Venezuelan prison Margarita

O Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP) today denounced the death of another prisoner, who suffered from heart disease, at the Judicial Detention Center of the Insular Region, in the state of Nueva Esparta, northeast of the country.

“César Ramón Aguilera Villahermosa died on 23 October, while he was in custody (...) his death again placed on the table the conditions of medical attention in Venezuelan prisons and the responsibility of the regime to ensure the health of those who remain in his custody”, denounces the OVP in a statement released on social networks.

The complaint takes place after the OVP warns that “between the months of April and September 2026, more than 60 prisoners died in state custody”, and that “most of these deaths were associated with severe malnutrition, disease complications and lack of timely specialized care”.

According to the OVP, Aguilera Villahermosa died due to “cardiogenic shock, dilated cardiomyopathy, severe arteriosclerosis and arterial hypertension” and the authorities should “clarify if it had been previously diagnosed, what treatment it received and had specialized and timely medical attention”.

In the statement, the director of the OVP, Humberto Prado, requires “an immediate, exhaustive and impartial investigation” to establish the circumstances of the death of Aguilera Villahermosa, “knowing his medical history, the treatments he received and the actions of the prison authorities in the face of his diseases”.

“ It is important to highlight that a person deprived of liberty depends on the State to access medicines, medical evaluations and hospital transfers (...) when someone dies in custody, it is not enough to inform the cause of death, the authorities must also report on the attention they received ", stresses the statement.

In the document, the OVP further denounces that the Margarita prison was the scene of one of the most notorious episodes of the “pranate” (organised crime system and control of mafias operating in local prisons).

“ For years he was under the control of Teófilo Rodríguez Cazorla, known as ‘El Conejo’, who exercised ample power within the establishment, where even a swimming pool and a disco. After his murder on 24 January 2016, the prisoners fired him with gunfire from inside the prison. The images of men displaying rifles and other weapons of war left the armed control that existed in prison ", explains.

For the OVP, the repercussion of these facts led to “intervention and the eviction of this prison” in February 2016, with “more than a thousand prisoners being transferred” to other prisons “while the authorities announced adequacy and restructuring work”.

The non-governmental organisation further underlines that in 2024, it documented that “at least 125 people remained in prison at this penitentiary centre, even though they were not informed publicly about their reconditioning or formal reopening”.

“ Likewise, we received complaints that some detainees paid to stay there, while others remain in overcrowded prisons, in police stations of the island and other states of the country ", explains.

According to the OVP, ten years after the vacancy, the prison continues to raise questions about the prison population, the conditions of seclusion and the mechanisms of supervision.

Prado demands that investigations “cover all human rights violations of detainees in Venezuela, especially those that harm life, such as deaths due to lack of medical attention and the facts of violence within prisons” and that those responsible be identified.

Humberto Prado urges local authorities to inform under what conditions the Margarita prison currently operates, how many people remain detained and with which health services the establishment counts.