Photographer Ana María Arévalo Gosen returned to Venezuela after eight years away, and began to document her country’s decline through the prism of women in the penal system

I left Venezuela in 2009, and when I returned in 2017, it felt like stepping into a different world. Prices had rocketed, hope for a better future had faded, and the infrastructure of what was once one of Latin America’s most promising nations was crumbling.

That year, I began the project Días Eternos [Eternal Days], driven by my need to explore one of the root causes of the crisis in my country: the perpetual breakdown of the penitentiary system. This is evident in the flawed ways criminals are sentenced, crimes are investigated and minorities are judged. This is one of the final images I took after two years visiting prisons and detention centres.

Ana María Arévalo Gosen is a Venezuelan photographer based in Madrid. Her visual storytelling focuses on women’s rights. Follow her on Instagram