Venezuelan authorities confirmed 35 inmates died after a they broke into a prison’s infirmary and overdosed on alcohol and prescription drugs.
Twenty of an additional 100 inmates that are still being treated for intoxication are in comas, officials said.
The Venezuelan government said the troubles at David Viloria prison began on Monday with a hunger strike for better conditions.
A group of violent inmates then raided the prison infirmary and then drank a deadly mix of pure alcohol with drugs used to treat diabetes, epilepsy and high blood pressure, officials say.
William Ojeda of the ruling socialist party said yesterday after visiting the jail that many of the intoxicated inmates were drug users suffering from withdrawal symptoms due to the prison's strict regimen of abstinence.
Secptical
Prisoner rights activists have been sceptical of the official version of events, saying no inmates would voluntarily end their lives or poison themselves as a form of protest.
Ligia Bolivar, a human rights expert at Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas said "counting the deaths now requires going to the morgue" as government information is so incomplete.
President Nicolas Maduro has yet to comment on the incident even as calls for a thorough investigation have come from Roman Catholic Church leaders in Venezuela and from the United Nations human rights agency.
On Thursday, police arrested the jail's warden, Julio Cesar Perez, who is expected to be charged in connection with the deaths.
The government says the situation at the prison is under control after it called in the National Guard and transferred hundreds of inmates to other facilities.
All prisoners’ rights are being respected, said Nr Ojeda, who is president of a congressional committee that oversees the penitentiary system.
Last year, 506 inmates died in Venezuela’s jails, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons.
PA