‘They enjoyed every act they inflicted’: Detainees describe the horror of Maduro’s ‘torture prisons’
By day, the prisoners were handcuffed and left under the scorching sun, their bodies rotated to burn their exposed skin; by night, they were jolted awake with buckets of urine and hauled in for interrogation.
Under Nicolás Maduro’s rule, thousands of Venezuelan opposition members, human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society actors were detained on vague, arbitrary, politically motivated charges. Many were taken to detention centres such as El Helicoide, the headquarters of the intelligence service in Caracas, or Tocorón, a vast prison complex in Aragua state, places long synonymous with torture, enforced disappearances, and prolonged isolation.
In recent days, following Mr Maduro’s abduction by the US, Venezuelan authorities have begun releasing some of those political prisoners. Those freed are now starting to speak publicly about what they endured.
