“I have already been tortured and suppressed, but they will not silence me. My voice is the only thing left to me.”
This is how Juan, a young man of about 20, begins his story. He claims he was physically and mentally tortured by Venezuelan security forces after he was detained in connection with the July 28 presidential election.
He was one of hundreds of people arrested during protests after election authorities – dominated by government loyalists – announced that incumbent President Nicolás Maduro had won.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) did not publicly release the vote totals, and the Venezuelan opposition described the official results as false, noting that the vote totals obtained with the help of election observers suggested a landslide victory for its candidate, Edmundo González.
Juan was released from prison in mid-November, days after Maduro called on judicial authorities to “correct” any wrongdoing in the arrests.
The BBC spoke to him via video call. For his own safety, we have decided to withhold some details of his case and have changed his name.
Mladić states that many detainees are mistreated, that they are given “rotten food”, and that the most rebellious are imprisoned in “torture facilities”.
He showed the BBC documents and evidence that corroborate his story, which coincides with other testimonies and complaints from non-governmental organizations.
Juan, an anti-government political activist, says the election campaign and the days leading up to the election were “marked by hope” and that many people wanted to vote for change.
But the announcement of Maduro’s victory shortly after midnight that Sunday turned what had been a celebratory mood for many into confusion and anger.
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest the results, which they called fake.
The opposition and international organizations say police repression followed, resulting in the deaths of more than 20 protesters.
Maduro and some of his officials have in turn blamed the opposition, the “extreme right” and “terrorist” groups for the deaths.
Gonzalo Himiob of the Venezuelan non-governmental organization Foro Penal says people have been arrested just for “celebrating the opposition’s declaration of Edmundo González as the winner or for posting something on social media.”
“We also have cases of people who did not even protest, but for some reason were close to the protest and were arrested,” he added.
Juan says it happened to him.
‘It was like being in a concentration camp’
A young political activist says he was doing some work when a group of hooded men intercepted him, covered his face and beat him, accusing him of being a terrorist.
“They planted Molotov cocktails and gasoline on me, and then they took me to prison,” he continued.
He was held in a prison in the interior of Venezuela for several weeks until he was transferred to Tocorón, a notorious high-security prison about 140 km southwest of the capital, Caracas.
There he would have what he describes as the worst experience of his life.
“When we arrived in Tocorón, they stripped us, beat us and insulted us. We were forbidden to raise our heads and look at the guards; we had to lower our heads to the floor,” says Juan.
Juan was assigned a small cell measuring three by three meters, which he had to share with five other people.
There were six beds arranged in three bunk beds, and in one corner there was a septic tank and a “pipe that served as a shower”. It was the bathroom.
“In Tocorón I felt more like a concentration camp than a prison,” says the young man. He describes the beds as “concrete tombs” with very thin mattresses.
“They tortured us physically and mentally. They didn’t let us sleep, they always came to ask us to get up and line up,” he explains.
“They would wake us up around 05:00 to line up behind the cell. The guards would ask us to show our passes and numbers.”
He adds that around 6 o’clock they would turn on the water for six minutes so that they could bathe.
“Six minutes for six people and only one shower, with very cold water. If you were the last one and you didn’t get to take the soap off, you stayed in the soap for the rest of the day,” he says.
Then, he adds, there was a wait for breakfast, which used to come at 6 a.m. and sometimes at 12 p.m.
Dinner was sometimes at 9 pm, and sometimes at 2 am.
“Apart from waiting for meals, we had nothing else. We could just walk around the small cell and tell stories. We also talked about politics, but quietly, because if the guards heard us, they would punish us. “
‘I thought I was going to die’
Juan says that many of his prisoners were depressed and acted like zombies.
“They gave us rotten food – scraps of meat like you’d give to chickens or dogs or sardines that were past their expiration date.”
Some detainees were routinely beaten or made to “walk like frogs” with their hands on their ankles, he says.
He describes the “punishment cells” to which those considered the most rebellious or those who dared to speak about politics or ask for a phone call to a relative would be sent.
Juan says he was in one of the penal cells in Tocorón and was given only one meal every two days.
“A very dark cell, one meter by one meter. I was very hungry. The only thing that kept me going was thinking about all the injustices that were happening and that one day I would get out of there,” he says.
Another torture cell is known as “Adolfo’s bed,” Juan says, named after the first person to die there.
“It’s a dark room with no oxygen the size of a vault. They put you in there for a few minutes until you can’t breathe and you pass out or start banging on the door in despair. They put me in there and I lasted just over five minutes I thought I was going to die,” he recalls.
Reports on crimes against humanity
Mladić says that in this prison, prisoners have 10 minutes to exercise outside three times a week, but many stay only in their cells.
Gonzalo Himiob of Foro Penal describes the conditions in Tocorón as “deplorable” and says that detainees’ basic rights, such as access to a lawyer of their choice, are being violated.
“They all have public defenders — the government knows that if they allow access to a private attorney who is not a public official, he or she can document any due process violations that occur.”
In October, United Nations (UN) experts reported serious human rights violations committed in the run-up to the presidential election and during the protests that followed, including political persecution, excessive use of force, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions by state security forces and related civilian groups.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently investigating the government of Venezuela for possible crimes against humanity.
The Venezuelan government denies the allegations and says this investigation “responds to the intention to instrumentalize the mechanisms of international criminal justice for political purposes.”
The BBC requested an interview with the Public Prosecutor’s Office about allegations of ill-treatment and torture of detainees, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
‘I am no longer afraid of the government’
Juan was released in November, but according to Foro Penal figures, as of December 30, there were still 1,794 political prisoners in Venezuela.
According to Juan, many of those detained in Tocorón had their hopes set on one date: the presidential inauguration on January 10, 2025.
That’s the day when opposition candidate Edmundo González, who lives in exile in Spain, said he would return to Venezuela and take over as president.
He bases his claims for the post of president on official voting results that the opposition managed to collect with the help of election observers.
These totals, which amount to 85% of the total, have been posted on the website and reviewed by independent observers who say they suggest a landslide victory for González.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden met with González and called him the “real winner” of the Venezuelan election.
However, it is not clear how González, for whom authorities have issued an arrest warrant, plans to enter Venezuela or who would swear him in, given that the National Assembly is dominated by Maduro loyalists.
Despite this, Juan says that the prisoners in Tocorón hope that there will be a change of government on Friday and that they will be released from prison.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s government has labeled any talk of a political transition a “conspiracy” and threatened that anyone who supports a change in leadership will “pay for it.”
Juan admits he feels a certain sense of guilt at being free while hundreds of his “comrades are still suffering” in prison.
But he says he is determined to return to the streets to show support for Edmundo González on January 10.
“I am no longer afraid of the Venezuelan government,” he explains.
I have already been accused of the most serious crimes, such as terrorism, even though I am just a young man who has done nothing more than love his country and help those around him.
“I’m not afraid,” Juan repeats, before admitting that he left some written testimony in a safe place “in case something happens to me.”
Illustrations by Daniel Arce-Lopez.
