Venezuelan cells' inmates lovin' cockfighting, pool parties and 'reggaeton'

London, June 19 (ANI): It is not uncommon for armed inmates to have a degree of autonomy in Venezuela's jails.

But the San Antonio jail, renowned on Margarita Island as a relatively tranquil place where even visitors can go for sinful weekend of partying, is in a class of its own.

Bikini-clad female visitors frolic under the Caribbean sun in an outdoor pool. Marijuana smoke flavours the air. Reggaeton (Latin urban music) booms from a club filled with grinding couples. Paintings of the Playboy logo adorn the pool hall. Inmates and guests jostle to place bets at a raucous cockfighting arena, reports Scotsman.

Some inmates walk the jail yard grasping assault rifles, and the 130 women from the female annexe freely mix with the men.

"The Venezuelan prisoners here run the show, and that makes life easier for us all," said Fernando Acosta, 58, a Mexican pilot jailed in 2007.

"I was in the army for ten years, I've played with guns all my life," says Paul Makin, 33, a Briton arrested in Porlamar for cocaine smuggling in 2009. "I've seen some guns in here I've never seen before. AK-47s, AR-15s, M-16s, Magnums, Colts, Uzis, Ingrams. You name them, it's in here."

Inside, opportunities flourish for inmates to cash in. Visitors from the island, a palm-fringed getaway destination, line up on weekends to place bets at the prison's cockfighting arena.

Other visitors, aware that guards search those coming in but not going out, buy drugs inside. (ANI)