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For years, the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has been condemned for numerous human rights violations in Venezuela. The international community has paid particular attention to the raw accounts of former political prisoners about the horrific atrocities committed at El Helicoide, the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), which has become the largest torture center in the country and Latin America. For this reason, relatives of political prisoners and former detainees this Monday asked CAF – the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean – Remove all symbols of that detention center from your annual Caracas Marathon.
“CAF, an organization that defends democracy, social equality and freedom, requests that torture centers not be justified through something symbolic,” he said. Victor Navarro in conversation with Infobay.
This group of victims requests that the image of Helicoid be removed from the medals awarded to all runners, and that organizers modify the marathon route so as not to pass past the Sabine facilities, where thousands of people are tortured daily. Has been going and is being done.
“We are working to ensure that this situation does not become the norm in Venezuela.”said Navarro, who also recalled that activists Rocío San Miguel and Javier Tarazona, among others, are currently being held in that brutal prison.
“This facility has, tragically, been transformed into a center of grave human rights abuses and the largest torture center in Latin America, “It should not be glorified or included in events that promote unity and sportsmanship.”said the letter sent to CAF executive president Sergio Díaz-Granados.
And he adds: “The presence of El Helicoide on medals and the marathon map, is far from representing an architectural icon, It creates pain and suffering for those directly affected by the atrocities that took place there. “This is an insult to the memory of the victims and trivializes their suffering.”
As he said, to ignore this request would be to ignore the call of those who are committed to promoting development within the framework of principles of integrity, respect for human dignity and equality and social justice, for which CAF is committed. to defend”.
Navarro knows firsthand the suffering and atrocities endured in El Helicoide. They don’t need to tell anyone. Like hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other Venezuelan activists, in 2018 the Maduro regime accused him of forming a “terrorist cell”. That “cell” included a foundation that helped youth in street situations. But on January 24 of that year, 35 officers, without any arrest or search warrant, searched him at his home and took him away after 4 a.m. They kept him missing for a few hours and took him to El Helicoide.
Today, exactly 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: closing those torture centers in Venezuela.
as mentioned infobaeHe was arbitrarily detained for 129 days. He was a victim of physical and mental torture: “In those days I could not see the sun, I was not allowed to visit, I could never meet my mother, I was completely isolated… The regime did not take me to court, I was forcibly Was a victim of 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 have heard how they raped women, how they beat, tortured and traumatized other people.”
“Those were the worst five months of my life,” he said.
Presidential elections were held in Venezuela that year. In its desire to regain legitimacy, the regime agreed to negotiate the release of some political prisoners in exchange for some opposition parties recognizing it as president. In this way Navarro gained his freedom. Half freedom because he was banned from leaving the country, had to appear before Chavista courts and could not resume his previous life.
The following year he decided to escape from the government’s oppression. He moved to Colombia, where he remained for ten days, until he eventually went into exile in Argentina.
He currently directs the non-governmental organization Voice of Memory and works to show the world the suffering suffered by prisoners of El Helicoide and many other Venezuelan detention centers in order to raise awareness and gain the support of the international community So that, once and for all, by all means, close the torture centers in your country.
Last year Inter-American Commission on Human Rights presented before Inter-American Court of Human Rights Their report on Case 14,238, which refers to the situation of Victor Alfonso Navarro Lopezand concluded that he was a victim of torture And? Basic aspects of his personal integrity were violated.
Venezuela is the first country in Latin America to 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 secret torture centers. . Houses throughout the metropolitan area of Caracas.
