The regime of Nicolás Maduro used El Helicoide, the main detention and torture center in Venezuela, as the setting to launch fireworks to mark the early start of Christmas in that country.
The show took place on Wednesday night, following the decree issued by Chavismo that set October 1 as the official date for the beginning of the Christmas festivities. Residents of Caracas took photos and videos, which were shared on social media, where they captured the moment when the structure, where dozens of political prisoners remain, was illuminated with pyrotechnics.
The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission reported that torture methods are used in this complex, such as stress positions, suffocation with bags or water, electric shocks to the genitals, and beatings with blunt objects.
El Helicoide
"Detainees were exposed to death and rape threats, forced nudity in extreme temperatures, and being kept chained for long periods," the organization stated.
The report also documents killings during protests, deaths in state custody, more than 2,200 arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and torture as part of a systematic persecution policy that constitutes crimes against humanity.
According to the document, the repression unleashed since July 29, 2024, deepens a state plan aimed at eliminating real or perceived opponents. This plan "has resulted in the commission of serious human rights violations and international crimes, constituting the crime against humanity of persecution for political reasons," the text states.
Nicolás Maduro, dictador de Venezuela.
The organization holds the Venezuelan regime and its security forces directly responsible, including the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the Bolivarian National Police (PNB), SEBIN, and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). The victims include opposition leaders, activists, journalists, human rights defenders, relatives, children, adolescents, and also foreigners.
The report identifies patterns of action by state forces, such as violent detentions, excessive use of force, home raids, and transfers of people without identification or judicial order. It also confirms the repeated use of anti-terrorism laws and the Law Against Hate to criminalize dissent.
The Mission concludes that impunity is structural in Venezuela and that victims face insurmountable barriers to accessing justice. The document includes 19 representative cases, which constitute only a portion of the recorded violations, reflecting the magnitude and severity of the human rights crisis in the country.
