It was going to be a shopping center and at present it is a penitentiary center and headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) of the Venezuelan Government. It is referred to as Helicoide, it is positioned on a hill in Caracas and is now denounced by many as one of the torture facilities largest in America.
It is estimated that some 1905 individuals (of them 67 minors) are in prison in Venezuela for pondering in a different way. “They should not political prisoners, however kidnapped by Maduro,” says Venezuelan activist Lilian Tintori, spouse of opposition chief Leopoldo López.
Some of these detainees spend their days in the worst place: the Helicoide. According to the Penal Forum Association, at present there are about 70however humanitarian organizations estimate that 15,000 individuals have handed by means of their cells.
The unfinished constructing that modified its use
The Helicoid was going to be a luxury shopping center. These have been the instances of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the dictator who dominated Venezuela between April 1953 and January 1958. After his overthrow, the mission was forgotten.
It was later resumed with detailed plans. there could be a shopping center, a five-star resort, a park and a present palace. It was so groundbreaking that the mannequin was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Pablo Neruda described it as an “beautiful creation.”
The Helicoide was raised round a rock, with a building space of 60,000 sq. meters. The first stage concluded in 1961; Then a number of stoppages adopted. Years handed and that didn’t take form.
In 1982, solely the aluminum geodesic dome was seen as the high of the bolstered concrete mountain. Starting in 1984, a number of State companies have been establishedthe most vital, the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP).
Detention center for political dissidents
Finally, in 2009, with Hugo Chávez in energy, the Helicoide was reused as a detention center for political dissidents. It’s what since then completely different organizations defending human rights have denouncedfrom Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch, by means of A Window to Freedom, Foro Penal or the Organization of American States (OAS) itself.
The overwhelming majority of these detained are activists towards the authorities of Nicolás Maduro. They manifested themselves particularly in 2014. According to Foro Penal, More than 3,000 individuals have been arrested at that time. Today in Venezuela there are nearly 2,000 political prisoners.
“I noticed individuals lined in blood, others tied up, some unconscious,” account to the BBC Rosmit Mantilla, who was arrested in May 2014 accused of financing the protests. “I had my face lined with newspaper, however I heard one guard ask one other for the revolver. ‘We are going to kill you,’ they mentioned.. And they laughed,” he says.
Daniela, raped and murdered
On May 16, 2018, the inmates and political prisoners of Helicoide rioted as a measure of protest towards the beating that an inmate named Gregory Sanabria acquired. The Police responded with tear fuel and pellets.
A Window to Freedom has denounced, amongst others, the case of Daniela Figueredo, arrested in October 2020, accused of possession of strategic materials. Was murdered on March 13, 2021, at the age of nineteen, by police officer Daniel Galarraga when he manipulated his service weapon inside the cell and shot him in the face. Everything would have occurred when the official was making an attempt to sexually abuse the woman.
The NGO collected testimonies from six inmates, who denounced that they’re “harassed and pressured to have sexual relations” with cops in change for advantages. The Figueredo matter reached, through report, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN can not enter the Helicoide
In July 2022, Bachelet reported that her workforce was not allowed entry to the Helicoide; neither to the Boleíta detention center nor to army detention facilities, all locations the place “the prisoners are arbitrarily detained for political causes.” According to Amnestythe individuals of Venezuela undergo “an implacable human rights disaster.”
The individuals of Venezuela undergo a relentless human rights disaster,” says Amnesty International
In that context, the UN Human Rights Council has simply renewed for a interval of two years the mandates of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM), along with the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to watch and report on the state of affairs.
Physical and psychological torture
The BBC He spoke in 2019 with two former SEBIN officers, who corroborated that prisoners have been tortured in Helicoide. One referred to “bagging,” suffocating the particular person with a plastic bag. “When they did so, they put a mirror in entrance of them and mentioned: ‘Look the way you’re dying.’ I noticed detainees urinate“He mentioned. Another said that additionally they used electrical energy. “They used a battery with two wires and they put them of their testicles, of their throat… anyplace,” he mentioned.
According to those former SEBIN officers, psychological torture is additionally dedicated in Helicoide. Rodolfo González, a 64-year-old retired airman, was arrested on fees of financing protests towards the Maduro regime. They threatened to arrest his spouse. “One evening he referred to as us horrified. They informed him that they have been going to switch him the subsequent day. Hours later, his cell neighbor heard him respiratory unusually. He screamed for assist. But it was too late…” says his daughter Ivette. Rodolfo had dedicated suicide.
Torture, impunity and judicial complicity
A report from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy in 2024 has analyzed “the systematic use of torture by the Venezuelan authorities as a device to instill worry and repress dissent.
According to the doc, titled Torture: State Policy of Venezuelaprisoners in Venezuela have been “subjected to excessive isolation, bodily assaults, sleep deprivation, lack of entry to primary hygienemeals and water, and have been typically denied medical remedy. “Many skilled electrical shocks, beatings, suffocation and sexual violence.”
The report accuses the judicial system of complicity. “It is deeply influenced by the govt department, and judges typically delegate selections to political leaders. Allegations of torture are continuously ignored, and judges actively discourage prisoners from telling about their torture experiences.”
Finally, it is identified the impunity of regulation enforcement officers. “Those accountable for torture face little or no accountability, as investigations into these instances are systematically delayed or blocked by prosecutors and judges,” says the doc launched by means of the Global Diaspora Network of Venezuela.
On the web site of this community the culprits are identified (list of repressors), whereas Justice, Encounter and Forgiveness (JEP), which promotes the protection of human rights by means of documentation, dissemination and reporting of instances of murdersretains alive a podcast that accounts for the torture suffered by many.
