Large columns of smoke from burning mattresses and sheets rose from the prison in the city of Barinas as inmates gathered on the roof, chanting, “No more torture! No more torture,” an AFP reporter observed.

They hung banners with messages like “SOS” and “They are torturing us.”

Officers armed with shields surrounded the Barinas Judicial Detention Center, located about 500km from Caracas.

Dozens of family members waited anxiously nearby. Yelitza Arrollo told AFP that she has not heard from her son, an inmate at the detention centre, since May 8.

“They are suffering because they are beating them terribly, torturing them, pouring cold water on them, electrocuting them, setting them on fire, mistreating them terribly,” she said outside the prison. “We want the director removed.”

For years, activists have denounced overcrowding, limited food, and a lack of medical care in Venezuelan prisons, as well as what they claim are systematic human rights violations.