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Political prisoners from Venezuela broke their silence and publicly denounced the torture and inhumane conditions they suffered at El Helicoide, the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in Caracas, in testimonies shared by Telemundo.
Among the revelations, one stands out from a former deputy and history teacher who described her cell as a windowless space, and a journalist's account who reported having been detained for four years in that facility, detailing the conditions in which he survived.
The journalist and former political prisoner Víctor Navarro, who spent five months in El Helicoide, described with intensity what he experienced: "He started loading the gun, put three bullets in it. He loaded it and stuck it in my mouth."
The former deputy and political prisoner Rosmit Mantilla was more direct in his statement: "Torture is a state policy in Venezuela."
The documented practices at El Helicoide include beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation with bags of insecticides, suspension of limbs, prolonged stressful positions, and submersion of the face in bags of feces, according to records from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN.
Several political prisoners died in their facilities, including the opposition leader Fernando Albán and General Raúl Isaías Baduel.
The case of Óscar Castañeda, who was detained after the elections on July 28, 2024, illustrates the severity of the aftermath: after nearly two years in El Helicoide, upon his release in February 2026, he could neither walk nor recognize his family.
The testimonies come at a time when Foro Penal reported approximately 500 political prisoners who remain unliberated in Venezuela, while the organization Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón raises that number to 676 detainees.
The political context exacerbates the situation: on April 25, the interim president Delcy Rodríguez announced the end of the Amnesty Law while hundreds of political prisoners remained incarcerated, leading to criticism from human rights organizations and families of those detained.
Foro Penal verified approximately 800 actual releases since January 2026, a figure that is very far from the more than 8,146 reported by the government. This gap between official and verified figures has been repeatedly reported by independent organizations.
In this context, María Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2025, has called for a global mobilization in over 120 cities under the slogan #LetThemAllBeFree, with one of the gathering points in Caracas located right in front of El Helicoide.
“They and their families need our voice, they need our strength, and that’s why we will raise our voice this Sunday, May 3rd, so that the whole world hears the cry for freedom, for justice, and for democracy,” declared Machado while calling for the event.
Since 2014, Foro Penal has recorded 19,079 political detentions in Venezuela, with more than 11,000 people under restrictive measures, a figure that makes the chavista regime one of the biggest repressors in the region in recent decades.
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