Inside vast Maduro torture complex in former mall where prisoners were electrocuted in the eyes & hung ‘like dead fish’

A CRUMBLING corkscrew-like structure spiralling up a hill in Venezuela’s Caracas is where Nicolas Maduros’ political opposition were “hung up like dead fish” to be tortured. What was supposed to be the world’s first drive-through shopping mall, back in the 1950s - embodying the South American country’s bankrupt dreams of modernity during the post-World War Two era - is now known as “hell on earth” by residents. Surrounded by slums, El Helicoide was never actually completed. It has since become Venezuela’s most notorious detention facility - a place of fear - used to detain ordinary criminals and political prisoners alike. Inside the concrete walls of El Helicoide, prisoners would suffer the most depraved methods of torture in sprawling chambers - strung up from the ceiling, beaten, raped and abandoned with bags of excrement over their heads for hours. In one torture method known as “the Russian” or “white torture”, people are crammed into a tiny windowless cell painted completely white with bright lights that are never turned off. Read more about Venezuela Former inmates told The Telegraph that this left them losing all sense of time, facing hallucinations and their minds “dripping away”. The light only flickered on and off when another victim was electrocuted next door. Those who survived years of torture inside El Helicoide said they would wake up every morning to see their friends lying unconscious on the cell floor, covered in blood. Rosmit Mantilla, an opposition politician who was held in the prison for two years, confirmed that several other inmates were raped with rifles while others were electrocuted. Most read in The US Sun “Some of them lost sight in their right eye because they had an electrode placed in their eye,” said. Almost all were “hung up like dead fish whilst they tortured them” as they would scream and plead for help, Mantilla recalled the horrors. He added: “Every morning, we would wake up and see prisoners lying on the floor who had been taken away at night and brought back tortured, some unconscious, covered in blood or half dead.” Mantilla was locked up in a 16ft x 9ft cell with 22 other people that was known as “el infiernito” - “little hell” because of its size. He explained that no one could lie down on the floor as there was not enough room, adding: “We urinated in the same place where we kept our food because there was no space.” It is not known how many prisoners have died from the brutal conditions as its operations are kept under wraps. Juan Navarrate, a human rights activist, has questioned claims by officials that inmates have died by suicide. He said: “I have heard of prisoners committing alleged suicides, jumping to their deaths, but who knows ... given the structure it would be very difficult to commit suicide like this.” Details about El Helicoide have been revealed as Venezuela’s top lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday that more than 400 people had been freed from...

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