BBC Last Updated: Saturday, 19 April, 2003, 05:56 GMT 06:56 UK

At least 11 prisoners have been killed in gang-related violence in one of Venezuela's largest jails, officials say.

The dead men were hacked and shot to death by prisoners armed with pistols, knives and shotguns at the Yare 2 prison in the central state of Miranda, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital, Caracas, they said.

At least two inmates were reported to have been decapitated. A further 40 prisoners were injured.

Prison authorities quelled the riot after calling in national guard troops and police to restore order to the jail complex.

It is not clear how the disturbance started.

The police say they intervened to stop a violent clash between two rival gangs of prisoners, but some of the inmates' relatives said it was the police who started the riot.

Overcrowding

The Yare 2 prison complex, which holds about 1,200 prisoners, once held current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after he led a failed coup in 1992.

Last month, inmates at the prison went on hunger strike to protest conditions at the complex and continual delays in trial processing, French news agency AFP reports.

Correspondents say violence is common-place in Venezuela's over-crowded and poorly-regulated prisons, with a series of major riots taking place in the last few years.

More than 200 prisoners were killed and more than 1,200 injured in violence within the Venezuelan prison system between October 2001 and September 2002, according to statistics from the Venezuelan ministry of interior and justice.

<a href=reuters.com>Reuters Fri April 18, 2003 02:28 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Eleven Venezuelan prisoners were hacked and shot to death on Friday, two of them beheaded, when rival gangs clashed with pistols, knives and homemade shotguns at one of the nation's largest prisons, officials said.

Prison authorities called in national guard troops and police who restored order after the gangs battled in the Yare 2 Prison in Miranda state.

"Early this morning, apparently there was a war between gangs for control of the prison. We have 11 dead and 40 injured," Carlos Alberto Sutrun, director of the national prison system, told Reuters.

"I understand that two were decapitated," he said.

The Yare prison complex, where President Hugo Chavez spent two years after leading a failed coup in 1992 before his 1998 election, holds about 1,200 prisoners.

Prison riots are common in Venezuela where an inefficient justice system leaves many inmates behind bars in overcrowded facilities for months before they go to trial.

Yare prisoners went on hunger strike about a month ago to protest conditions and delays in trial processing.

More than 240 inmates were killed and 1,249 injured from violence in the nation's prison system between October 2001 and September 2002, according to Ministry of Interior and Justice statistics.

A recent State Department human rights report found 48 percent of all prisoners in Venezuela were in pre-trail detention. The report said that general prison conditions are harsh with 22 of the country's 30 jails suffering from overcrowding.

NewsMax.com Wires Friday, April 18, 2003

GENEVA, Switzerland – The United Nations Commission on Human Rights Commission turned the heat on Cuba over its poor track record Thursday in adopting, by three votes, a resolution that calls on Cuba's regime to accept inspection by a special envoy. Havana says it will not allow the inspection.

The watered-down resolution fails even to mention the recent worsening of abuses in Cuba. Though conceding it was not as strong as Washington would have liked, "we're very glad the resolution passed," Kevin Moley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told reporters.

The head of the Cuban delegation, Juan Antonio Fernandez, denounced the outcome and said Havana had no intention to accept the motion.

"We're not going to accept the visit by inspectors ... let alone in the way it is trying to be imposed," he told reporters. Cuba says it would violate its sovereignty.

The country's human rights abuses, long an issue, have deteriorated in recent weeks. Government authorities have arrested dozens who are opposed to dictator Fidel Castro; nearly all are still in detention. Last week three men were arrested, tried and then executed for hijacking a ferry in a desperate attempt to escape the police state.

The communist regime of Castro, who overthrew a U.S.-backed autocrat in 1959, has survived more than 40 years of sanctions imposed by the United States. During the Cold War the Americans saw Cuba as a toehold of communism just off its coast, and indeed Soviet missile batteries set up there in 1962 sparked a crisis between the two superpowers that briefly brought them to the brink of war.

The human rights resolution, sponsored by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay, passed 24-20 with nine abstentions. It was preceded by weeks of behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuverings and periodic heated public exchanges between Cuba and its arch adversary, the United States.

Among those voting in favor of the weakened resolution were some of Cuba's trading partners, including Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as Mexico, Chile, Guatemala and Paraguay. Castro ally Venezuela voted against the measure, and Brazil and Argentina abstained.

Fernandez told a packed audience the Latin sponsors were "disgusting lackeys" and said the draft was "made in the United States." The adoption of the motion each year is the result of "huge and shameful pressures," he claimed.

"Cuba this year was very aggressive because events of the last couple of weeks put them on the defensive," an ambassador from a non-aligned country told United Press International.

The 53-member body passed the motion only after the 31-15 defeat of a proposed amendment by Costa Rica calling for the U.N. body to condemn the recent detention and harsh sentencing of Cuban dissidents. Cuba's retaliation, a proposed amendment declaring the U.S. embargo was a flagrant violation of Cubans' human rights, was defeated 26-17. Moley said: "We wish it took into account the egregious violations of human rights that have taken place since this commission began, including the execution just this past Friday of three people in the matter of days from the time they were arrested to the time they were tried and within hours executed."

The U.S. official said the motion "does in fact give some hope to the dissidents in Cuba, and to all those in Cuba, and elsewhere in the Americas, for human rights."

Moley said failure to authorize the special U.N. envoy was a violation of the human rights of the Cuban people and of their hopes for freedom.

"This is a shame which reflects on Fidel Castro's inability to provide human rights to his own people," he said. "We hope that in future there would be no need for a resolution, that in fact the regime in Cuba would change in such a way as to afford its own people the same kind of rights freedom of religion, freedom to vote, free and impartial judiciary there currently denied and have been now for 45 years. It is an outrage."

Earlier, the Cuban envoy declared "a well-elaborated plan of destabilization and subversion against Cuba is under way," and added, "Attempts are made to create a migratory crisis or any incident that may create the conditions necessary to justify a war of aggression against Cuba."

Havana has accused the U.S. representative in Cuba, James Carson, of overreaching his diplomatic privileges in meeting with Cubans. With such acts as giving them radios and hosting prominent meetings in support of Cuba's dissidents, Carson is fomenting political opposition and recruiting spies, according to the regime.

From President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, the Bush administration released a congratulatory statement tempered with a promise of further efforts against the dictatorship.

"President Bush welcomes the leadership of the Latin America democracies in highlighting these abuses by the only dictatorship of the region. The commission has sent the right signal to courageous Cubans who struggle daily to gain their basic political and civil freedoms," it read.

Then it expressed continuing concerns about the fate of Cuban dissidents and added it would search for "new ways" with other countries and international organizations "to effect a peaceful democratic transition in Cuba."

It ended: "We also call upon the member states of the United Nations to deny Cuba a seat on the Human Rights Commission next year. No country should be allowed to sit on the Human Rights Commission if it purposely and consistently undermines the spirit and purpose of the commission."

Pravda 04/18/2003 14:33

Castro's regime must allow UN observers in the island. No comments made on the recent execution and imprisonment of dissidents The United Nations Human Rights Commission (HRC) Thursday passed a new resolution compelling Cuba to allow international observers within its territory to survey island's internal situation. Cuban diplomats see the new resolution, approved by 24 votes to 20 and 9 abstentions, as a "moral victory" for Castro's regime. Cuba avoid a stronger condemn presented by Costa Rica and sponsored by Washington.

The final wording of the new resolution had been submitted by Uruguay, Peru and Nicaragua and backed by the European Union and the United States of America. The warning approved by the HRC states that Cuba has to allow the presence of the French jurist Christine Chanet. Mrs. Chanet would act as an envoy of the Commission to overview Human Rights advances in the island. The Government of Fidel Castro had systematically denied the presence of UN envoys for such purposes.

Costa Rica, in turn, had presented an amendment to the winning resolution to include a formal protest on the recent imprisonment of prominent members of the internal dissidence. The wording also mentioned the case of three Cuban citizens executed for hijacking a ferry to escape to Florida State. Despite these facts, broadly condemned by the international global opinion, the Commission opted for the original wording.

Notwithstanding, the victory of Cuban diplomacy was not complete, as the organism did not pass a resolution presented by Havana to condemn the blockade imposed by Washington 40 years ago. Cuba's submission was rejected by 26 votes to 17 and 10 abstentions.

As usual, the voting created a big controversy within the Commission. Washington puts a lot of pressure over Latin American diplomats to condemn Cuba. However this time, the region looked more divided than ever, toward the question. While Chile, Peru and Mexico voted against Cuba, Brazil and Argentina opted for the abstention and Venezuela rejected the anti-Cuban resolution.

Despite US pressures, each country voted individually. Peru, Chile and Uruguay traditionally vote against Cuba, and they did it again. Mexico, trying not to further damage its ties to Washington, followed them. On the other side, Venezuela reaffirmed once again its affinity with Cuba and Brazil kept its long tradition of abstention.

The only country that made an important turn on the question was Argentina. Since 1989, this South American country had followed a foreign policy aligned to Washington. However, the new administration product of the uprisings of December 2001, tried to look for common positions with Brazil. The new scenario led President Duhalde to change country's vote and come back to the traditional abstention on Cuba's affairs that reigned before 1989.

No matter the case, this story does not end here. Cuba says that The United States prevents the Commission from covering the real problems afflicting the world today. Cuba also requested that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "investigate the acts of terrorism that are committed against Cuba and have their base in US territory".

Castro's diplomats consider that this 14 year battle to condemn the Island for alleged violations of Human Rights serves the United States with the pretext of maintaining the economic and trade violation maintained for more than four decades. Anyway, unjustified Cuba's decision to keep on jailing dissidents and executing citizens does not help nations aiming to vote against foreign intervention in sovereign internal affairs.

<a href=www.sfgate.com>SFGate.com Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, April 18, 2003

Gabriele Mariotti has always had nimble hands, an amazing eye for detail, and a knack for drawing the most out of a fine swath of cloth.

But these days, the Italian tailor speaks with hesitation. He has difficulty moving his left hand and shoulder. He needs help climbing the stairs of his home in the Sunset District of San Francisco.

In mid-March, a sign was posted on the window of his shop in Mill Valley, announcing its closure due to a family emergency. A stroke had paralyzed the left side of his body. He has since regained some movement, but his body is stiff and his hand feels clumsy.

His health had been excellent -- no history of high blood pressure or high cholesterol -- but his father and grandfather had strokes.

"It's like a car that runs all the time for years," he said. "And then one day it doesn't work anymore."

Mariotti, 70, grew up in poverty in an Italian village. In the early 1960s, he moved to the Bay Area and became a success story. For 36 years he has run his small shop, Giovanni of Italy, at the Strawberry Village shopping center --

serving customers in southern Marin. It was too costly to change the name of the shop when he bought it from another tailor, so many of his customers assume that Giovanni is his first name.

"He has beautiful hands. His hands did such wonderful work. . . . He put my daughter through school," said the tailor's wife, Ana Maria. "Your hands have to be very precise, like a painter's. It's an art, I think. And if you enjoy it, you do it with passion."

She is struggling to pay the bills, including the rent on his shop, while he tries to recuperate with physical therapy.

"He's a very determined man. He loves his trade," she said, trying to stay calm. "He'd love to go back to work, but it's a lot of pressure to be in business, and I don't think he needs that."

The tailor views the shopping center beside Highway 101 as a village -- a place where he feels at home with shopkeepers. "When I go there, everybody knows me and I know them," he said. "I like the interaction of the customers --

good and bad. People come in, they talk about movies. We tell stories. We make a funny." Some of his customers are from families who have brought clothes to him for three generations. Mariotti loves seeing a high-quality fabric or finely stitched piece of clothing. "Molto bene," he would whisper and nod. Very well done.

He misses the simple things: stopping by the deli for coffee, buying a Lotto ticket at the market, dickering over the price with a customer.

"Have you ever known a tailor to die rich?" he would ask.

He was also in the habit of stopping by an Italian bakery in North Beach to buy amaretti. And he would show up at Marin Joe's restaurant in Corte Madera to sip a glass of wine and banter in Italian with the owner, Romano Della Santina.

"He's a simple guy, very conscientious. A hard worker. He was doing beautiful work and didn't even charge that much," Della Santina said. "He's a terrific guy with a lot of talent. I love the guy."

Although frustrated, the tailor has clung to his sense of humor.

"He's the authentic Italian," his wife said. "No matter how old he is, he's always looking at girls. He's very flirtatious with the nurses. They know he just likes to do that for fun."

And he still has a flair for language. His native tongue is Italian, but he also speaks Spanish and English. "The beautiful thing is that he speaks the three languages together at the same time," his wife said. "People would really laugh about it. He would laugh, too."

One client, Suzanna Schomaker of San Rafael, dropped by his shop with her alterations on the way to her office in San Francisco. Mariotti wouldn't charge her for quick and easy items like fixing a shoulder strap on a bra.

"The very funny thing about him was that he was so hard to understand. His wife would be the interpreter," Schomaker said. "And they're so in love. Imagine working with someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and still acting like they just met."

Mariotti's wife calls him Amore. They talk mostly in her native tongue: Spanish.

He grew up in the village of Loreto Aprutino in the Abruzzo region in central Italy. He was the eldest of three children. His father served in the Italian army in World War II and was taken prisoner in Africa. At age 9, Gabriele became the man of the house.

His village was occupied by the Germans. Food was scarce. His mother made bread to feed the family. Gabriele picked fruit and divided it with his mother,

brother and sister.

After the war, his father returned home and sent Gabriele to a village tailor, where he served an apprenticeship for eight years.

"Tailoring is like an art. You never finish learning," Mariotti said. "You keep learning from the new styles coming."

At 21, he moved to Caracas, Venezuela, in search of work and fun. "Going to South America, I felt free, because the customs for men and women are very free," he said with lust in his eyes. "It's not like living in a village."

Several years later, he returned to Italy. In 1963, he boarded a passenger ship for America, landing in New York. He stayed in Baltimore for four months before heading to the Bay Area.

He lived in San Mateo and worked for a year for a custom tailor who made suits for the elite. He also worked for a year in Belmont, and then briefly as a manager at Macy's in Palo Alto.

Ana Maria grew up in El Salvador. In 1957, she joined her mother in San Francisco, where she went to school and worked for an insurance firm before snagging a long-term job with Wells Fargo.

Mariotti met his future wife at a party in San Francisco in 1969. "At the time, I was like a butterfly. But I kept looking at her," he said.

"He didn't speak Spanish very well. Just the bad words," she joked. "I straightened him out."

She took him to the opera, but he was asked to leave because of his snoring.

They ate at their favorite restaurant, Fugazzi, and then went dancing. They hiked in the hills and watched sunsets.

In 1972, they were married at her mother's house in the Sunset District. A year later, they bought a house on Lawton Street, where they have lived for 30 years. They have one daughter: Rosanna Maria Mariotti, 26, a science teacher at San Francisco's Lincoln High School.

"My husband was a very hard-working man. He worked for at least 12 hours a day," his wife said. "It saddened me that he came home very late. I didn't know that something worse was going to happen. That's life."

At his shop, Mariotti's wife handled most of his paperwork and customer relations. "If he wasn't satisfied with his work," she said, "he'd tell the customers, 'I want to do it over again. Would you mind waiting a few days?' "

Before his stroke, the tailor used to enjoy walking in Golden Gate Park. He loved to garden and work on his daisies. Once in a while, he would meet with a handful of other Italian tailors in the city. Mariotti used to wear a business suit to work. In recent years he had become more casual, but he still made a point of wearing a tie each day.

"We would have lunch once in a while. He did a lot of work for me," said customer Henry Timnick. "There's something about Old World competence. The tailors are gone, and it's a shame. The last of the great artisans with their hands."

The stroke hit on the morning of March 14, when Mariotti was at home. The tailor spent the next three weeks at St. Mary's Medical Center on Stanyan Street, where Dr. Stanley Yarnell presided over his care.

"He couldn't move his left side. He couldn't see. He couldn't eat. He was more vegetable than anything," his wife said. "For a while he couldn't even drink liquids. They had him on an IV . . . After a few days, he was beginning to move his hand. It's a blessing. He could barely speak, but his mind was sharp. He was remembering all the customers, and he felt bad that he wasn't able to have their pieces ready for them."

He was put on a rigorous program of occupational, speech and physical therapy. Medicare and supplemental insurance paid for his hospital stay, but he does not have long-term disability insurance.

Two weeks ago, he returned home, where he receives physical therapy four mornings a week. He has been able to start flexing his left hand, but it is not agile. "I can probably do an easy job, but not what I'm used to," he said. "To do a fine job, the tailoring is very precise. I need my left hand."

Mariotti insists that he will be back to work in a matter of weeks or months. But his wife doesn't know if he will ever work again.

"I keep him walking and doing exercises. I keep him engaged in conversation.

He's learning to go up and down the stairs," she said. "In about a year, God willing, he'll be fine."

When he gets discouraged, Mariotti cuddles Bebe, a stray cat that showed up at the house nine years ago. Bebe's tigerlike coat reminds him of a cat that was lost in the war when he was a boy.

"Each day I feel a little more equilibrium," Mariotti said after walking across the living room with a cane and his wife's arm to steady him. "What I couldn't do yesterday, I can do tomorrow."

So the shop lights remain off. A couple of potted plants and a small American flag sit in the window. A few unclaimed alterations wait on hangers.

"We may have to close the store for a while, and if, God willing he goes back to work, we'll reopen it. And hopefully the shopping center will have a space for him," she said. "At least those are his dreams. And I say, 'Yes, that will happen.' He has to have something to dream about."

E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.