Venezuelan prison stand-off ends after 27 days
Troops controlled areas outside the El Rodeo prison in Venezuela for nearly a month
Police in Venezuela have regained control of a prison east of the capital, Caracas, after a stand-off that lasted for 27 days.
More than 800 inmates have now given up their weapons and left the El Rodeo prison in minibuses.
They are undergoing medical examinations and will be taken to two other prisons.
The stand-off began after troops stormed the prison to put an end to violent clashes between rival groups.
More than 25 people died in the mid-June clashes and in subsequent attempts to regain full control of the prison, in the town of Guatire.
Venezuelan troops eventually took over a part of the jail known as El Rodeo I, which accounted for some three-quarters of the inmates.
But hundreds of armed prisoners remained in control of the other wing, El Rodeo II.
“Start Quote
We celebrate the triumph of peace, dialogue”
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Tareck El Aissami
Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister
The authorities said a small group of inmates there were using guns to exert control over the other prisoners.
Several attempts to negotiate with the leaders of the prison's two factions failed.
But nearly a month after the first riots, the Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister, Tareck El Aissami, said the inmates agreed to surrender.
He said they had been given guarantees that their human rights would be respected.
"We've managed for all of them to come down to the patios," Mr El Aissami said. "We celebrate the triumph of peace, dialogue."
A spokesperson for the prisoners' relatives, Grisel Zorrilla, told the Associated Press news agency that the inmates all appeared well as they left the compound.
Venezuelan prisons are notoriously overcrowded and there have been a series of riots since the beginning of the year.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says nearly 500 people died in prison violence last year.
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