Exposing El Helicoide: The Largest Torture Center in Venezuela and Latin America

2024-03-04 22:18:00
El Helicoide is the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and the largest torture center in Venezuela and Latin America.

For years, the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro has been denounced for multiple violations of human rights in Venezuela. The international community has paid special attention to the crude accounts of former political prisoners about the terrible torture perpetrated in El Helicoide, headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), which became the largest torture center in the country and Latin America. For this reason, relatives of political prisoners and former detainees asked this Monday the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean – to eliminate all symbols of that detention center from its annual Caracas marathon.

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“The request to CAF, an institution that watches over democracies, social equality, and freedoms, is not to vindicate the torture center through something so symbolic,” said Víctor Navarro in dialogue with Infobae.

The request of this group of victims is that the image of the Helicoide be removed from the medal that is given to all runners, and that the organizers modify the marathon route so as not to pass in front of the SEBIN facilities, where thousands of people They have been – and are – tortured daily.

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“We are working to ensure that this situation is not normalized in Venezuela,” said Navarro, who also recalled that activists Rocío San Miguel and Javier Tarazona, among others, are currently detained in that atrocious prison.

They ask the CAF to remove the image of El Helicoide, the largest torture center of the Chavista regime, from the Caracas marathon medal

“This facility, sadly converted into the epicenter of serious human rights abuses and the largest torture center in Latin America, should not be praised or incorporated into events that promote unity and sportsmanship,” states the letter sent to Sergio. Díaz-Granados, executive president of the CAF.

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And he adds: “The presence of El Helicoide on the medal and on the marathon map, far from representing an architectural icon, evokes pain and suffering for those directly affected by the atrocities committed there. “It is an affront to the memory of the victims and a trivialization of their suffering.”

As they stated, ignoring this request “would mean omitting the call of those who have suffered, in addition to contradicting the principles of integrity, respect for human dignity and the promotion of development in a framework of equity and social justice that the CAF is committed to defend”.

Activist Víctor Navarro demands the closure of torture centers in Venezuela

Navarro knows firsthand the suffering and atrocities suffered in El Helicoide. No one needs to tell them. Like hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other Venezuelan activists, in 2018 the Maduro regime accused him of having created a “terrorist cell.” That “cell” consisted of a foundation that helped young people in street situations. But on January 24 of that year, 35 officers searched for him at his house, without an arrest or search warrant, and took him away after 4 in the morning. For a few hours they kept him missing, and took him to El Helicoide.

Today, just over six years after that fateful night, Víctor is fortunate to be able to tell his story and, at the same time, dedicate his days to achieving his main objective: to close those torture centers in Venezuela.

According to what he told Infobae, during the 129 days that he was arbitrarily detained he was a victim of physical and psychological torture: “In those days I did not see the sun, I was not allowed visitors, I was never able to see my mother, I was completely isolated… The regime did not allow me brought to court, I was a victim of forced disappearance.”

However, he said that the hardest thing he had to experience was “seeing and hearing how others were tortured”: “They put a loaded gun in my mouth; I heard how they raped women, how they beat, tortured and gave shocks to other people.”

“They were the worst five months of my life,” he said.

Venezuelan protesters demand the closure of El Helicoide, in Caracas (EFE/ Miguel Gutiérrez)

That year presidential elections were held in Venezuela. In its desire to achieve legitimacy, the regime agreed to negotiate the release of some political prisoners in exchange for certain opposition parties recognizing it as president. This is how Navarro achieved his freedom. A half-freedom because he was prohibited from leaving the country, he had to appear before the Chavista courts and could not resume his previous life.

The following year he decided to escape persecution from the regime. He crossed into Colombia, where he stayed for ten days, until he finally went into exile in Argentina.

He currently directs the non-governmental organization Voices of Memory and works to show the world the ordeal suffered by the prisoners of El Helicoide and many other detention centers in Venezuela in order to raise awareness and obtain the support of the international community so that, once and for all, By all means, close the torture centers in your country.

Last year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights presented its report on Case 14,238 to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which refers to the situation of Víctor Alfonso Navarro López, and concluded that he was a victim of torture and that basic aspects of his rights were violated. personal integrity.

Venezuela is the first country in Latin America to have an open investigation before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Independent International Mission for the Determination of Facts about Venezuela (FFM) confirmed the existence of at least three large torture centers: El Helicoide, La Tumba and the headquarters of the Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), in addition to 17 other clandestine torture houses throughout the metropolitan area of ​​Caracas.

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