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Torture in Venezuela has been a consistent phenomenon throughout its history. Various dictatorships from the Spanish colonial era into the twentieth century utilized torture against common criminals and political opponents. Dissidents and lower class citizens were targets of torture during the administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez in the late-twentieth century. Into the twenty-first century during the crisis in Venezuela, the United Nations, Organization of American States, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Foro Penal documented acts of torture and violence towards real or perceived opponents of the Bolivarian government, mainly detainees, including by state institutions such as the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN).

Colonial era

Under rule of the Royal Audiencia of Caracas and the Spanish Inquisition, inhabitants of Venezuela faced serious repression. The Catholic Church served as an important source to royalists, with priests serving as informants who would provide accusations to Inquisition judges because they believed crimes against the Spanish king were crimes against God. Judges then held the power to torture those accused of crimes during interrogations in order to obtain a confession. However, this practice was rare in Spanish-ruled Venezuela since it had already become controversial, even in Europe.

When the Royal Audiencia was deposed and the Supreme Junta was established, the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence explicitly stated that the death penalty was abolished, torture was forbidden and that courts would presume innocence. However, as Venezuela began to face conflicts shortly after its independence, repressive behaviors within the government returned.

Juan Vicente Gómez dictatorship

In 1854, a house of correction called "La Rotunda [es]" was built to rehabilitate common criminals. Under President Juan Pablo Rojas Paúl, La Rotunda was converted into a prison. La Rotunda grew in prominence under the governments of Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez between 1900 and 1935, who heavily utilized the prison for political persecution. Types of punishment and torture included being placed in stocks, strappado, ball and chain, having a rope tightened around the temple and having poison or ground glass placed into food. It was not uncommon that prisoners were tortured or starved to death.

Many of political prisoners were sent to forced labor, the most famous of which was the construction of the Transandean Highway in the Venezuelan Andes. One of the cruelest torturers in La Rotunda was a common prisoner named Nereo Pacheco who, by orders of Gómez, was used by the guards as an element of punishment against the political prisoners.

La Rotunda was demolished in 1936 by President Eleazar López Contreras, who was Minister of War of Vicente Gómez. López Contreras chose the name "La Concordia" for the square that would be located in the same place where the jail had been, to give an idea of a new time of understanding. With this he wanted to give strength to his recently inaugurated and fragile mandate because, from his position as minister, it was very unlikley that López Contreras was unaware of what was happening to the prisoners of La Rotunda. The demolition of the prison by López Contreras has been seen as an attempt to erase one the historical memory due to his own involvement.

Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship

Under the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Venezuelan authorities held little regard for the human rights of citizens. The dictatorship created a secret police, the Dirección de Seguridad Nacional, that was in charge of arresting, torturing and imprisoning political opponents, and was characterized by its excessive repression of dissidence and torture of detainees. Police often raided homes without search warrants and individuals were imprisoned without evidence. While initially detained, individuals faced torture in instances of interrogation. Political police targeted, arrested, tortured and killed his opponents. In the National Security headquarters throughout the country, political prisoners were subjected to different methods of torture, such as the ice chamber, standing up barefoot in a car rims, blows with steel balls, electric bands, batons and other forms of physical mistreatment. Those who were attacked include future Venezuelan presidents Rómulo Betancourt, Jaime Lusinchi and Luis Herrera Campins. Lusinchi was jailed for two months in 1952 and was beaten with a sword.

At that time, the Colón Square in Los Caobos, Caracas, was the epicenter of student protests. During the celebration of Columbus Day in 1951, several Venezuelans who were protesting against the dictatorship were arrested: José Amín, Miguel Astor Martínez, Antonio Ávila Barrios, Francisco Barrios, Federico Estaba, Gerardo Estaba, Luis José Estaba, Darío Hernández, Manuel Vicente Magallanes, Eloy Martínez Méndez, Salón Meza Espinosa and Juan Regalado. This group was known as The Twelve Apostles because they were a dozen detainees. The twelve apostles were forced to stand together for three days, deprived of their physiological needs. Each one was tortured in a personalized way.

Although the Pérez Jiménez regime announced the closure of the labor camp on Guasina Island on 17 December 1952, in Delta Amacuro state, records such as the work Se llamaba SN, by José Vicente Abreu, document the forced labor and subhuman conditions on the island.

Carlos Andrés Pérez administration

This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Torture in Venezuela" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024)

In 1976, during the first government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, the leader of Revolutionary Left Movement and founder of the Socialist League, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was detained by agents of the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), who tortured him to death.

Human Rights Watch wrote in a 1993 report that the administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez "was marked by an increase in human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture, extrajudicial executions, the violent repression of popular demonstrations and protests" and that the judicial branch largely ignored abuses by his government. Amnesty International reported that "orture and ill-treatment are widespread in Venezuela, in some cases resulting in death", detailing that despite torture being condemned by officials and in the country's laws, authorities used abuse techniques described as "simple but sophisticated: they are designed to cause maximum pain with the minimum of marks." The Caracas Metropolitan Police [es] and National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP) were used as tools to persecute dissenters.

Various torture methods were used by authorities during the Pérez administration. Techniques used by security officials included simultaneous strikes to both ears that resulted in perforated eardrums, "peinillazo" beatings with unsharpened sabres known as peinillas, shocks with cattle prods to sensitive areas and strappado positions, dangling detainees from their bound wrists. These methods were mainly used after and during the asphyxia of victims with plastic bags, sometimes filled with ammonia gas or other chemicals.

Victims of torture during this period were mainly from lower class citizens and included some minors, with police frequently arbitrarily detaining residents of Caracas' impoverished barrios and subsequently torturing them. During the Caracazo, security forces of the Pérez government were reported to have engaged in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings according to Amnesty International and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. DISIP officers were reported to have beat protesters detained during the Caracazo with baseball bats and pipes. Following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts against President Pérez, a crackdown on alleged plotters resulted in multiple reports of torture perpetrated by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DIM), and the Directorate of Intelligence of the Army (DIE). Political activists and students were also tortured when constitutional protections were removed following the 1992 coup d'état attempts, with many requiring medical treatment following their experiences.

Bolivarian Revolution

Under the Bolivarian governments, levels of torture occurred that had not been seen since the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Following the election of Hugo Chávez, human rights in Venezuela deteriorated. According to Universidad Metropolitana in 2006, "the inquisitorial process" that was abolished in the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence returned to Venezuela. By 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a report stating that Venezuela's government practiced "repression and intolerance".

During the presidency of Nicolás Maduro, torture in Venezuela increased. In La Tumba (The Tomb), one of the headquarters and prisons of SEBIN, has been used for white torture and some of its prisoners have attempted suicide. Conditions in La Tumba have resulted with prisoner illnesses, though Venezuelan authorities refuse to medically treat those imprisoned. Bright lights are continuously left on and prison cells are set at near-freezing temperatures.

In December 2014, the United States signed Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act of 2014 to impose targeted sanctions on Venezuelan individuals responsible for human rights violations as a result of the 2014 Venezuelan protests. The law allows the freezing of assets and visa bans for those accused of using acts of violence or violating the human rights of those opposing the Venezuelan government. In March 2015, the United States froze assets and revoked visas of several senior officials connected to human rights abuses in Venezuela; these sanctions were condemned in Latin America.

In November 2014, Venezuela appeared before the United Nations Committee Against Torture over cases between 2002 and 2014, which criticized the Venezuelan National Commission for the Prevention of Torture for being biased in favor towards the Bolivarian government. The Committee had also expressed concern with "beatings, burnings and electric shocks in efforts to obtain confessions" that occurred during the 2014 Venezuelan protests and that of the 185 investigations for abuses during the protests, only 5 individuals had been charged. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez stated on 11 March 2015 that Venezuela had ignored requests for information and that he had made "conclusions based on the lack of response" and "concluded that the government violated the rights of prisoners", further saying that the Maduro government failed "with the obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish all acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment".

During the 2017 Venezuelan protests, more than 290 cases of torture and thousands of extrajudicial executions were documented by the Organization of American States.

Foreign involvement

The Organization of American States, with information provided by Casla, reported that some of the 46,000 members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces assisting the government of Nicolás Maduro were involved with torturing Venezuelans who opposed Maduro. Prisoners reported that they recognized Cuban accents among those who were torturing them.

References

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• Torture in Venezuela