The torturers of the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro arrive in Times Square, New York, to call for an end to human rights violations in Venezuela and the torture used on political prisoners in centers such as El Helicoide.
The Penal Forum organization, in charge of supporting and defending political prisoners in Venezuela, stated that since 2014 there have been more than 15,700 people who have been taken to prison for political reasons in the country.
"When we talk about a political prisoner, it is not just an arbitrary prison, there is a political intention behind the prison. There are even people who have been imprisoned for supposedly murdering someone and it is simply an invention, a creation for the purpose of imprisoning someone. that they wanted to exclude from the political game. It could be a student protesting in the streets or certain political leaders," Alfredo Romero of the Venezuelan Penal Forum explained to Radio France International.
According to Provea, a non-governmental organization, at least 8,900 victims sent their testimonies to the International Criminal Court about the situation in Venezuela. "The victims reported having suffered physical, psychological, emotional, material and moral damages, as well as the deprivation of fundamental rights, affecting them at the individual, family, group and community level."
A series of videos that aim to raise awareness about the torture applied by officials of the Venezuelan dictatorship against political prisoners will be projected on screens in Manhattan while the different leaders meet at the new United Nations General Assembly.
The initiative will have 15 reality headsets available for people on the streets of Times Square to use for five minutes. Citizens will have an experience based on real-life happenings that occurred in El Helicoide, considered the largest torture center in Venezuela.
"We want to measure Maduro's crimes against humanity"
The experience, called Helicoid Reality, was created by the organization Voices of Memory, founded by Víctor Navarro, a former political prisoner. The activity aims to show what the torture victims of the dictatorship experience and demand the closure of the torture centers. The project has already been presented at organizational forums in the United States and Europe.
"We want to measure the crimes against humanity that are committed in Venezuela through a virtual reality experience that makes visible how a political prisoner lives in El Helicoide, in this torture center. We did it through the testimony of 30 people who were detained there. What we are going to do is a peaceful protest that demands what we are looking for is to ask that the torture centers be closed and we are going to do the protest using this virtual reality tool," Navarro explained to Voz Media.
Navarro thanked the citizens who supported the activity despite the persecution and threat of the Venezuelan regime. "The most beautiful thing about this is to see how there are people inside and outside of Venezuela who are moving with this initiative. In Caracas there will also be a protest demanding the closure of the torture centers. It is important to see how citizens are coming out to support political prisoners. It is important that while the UN talks about democracy and peace, we show an issue as delicate as torture. The world is trying to whitewash Maduro and we are calling for an end to the human rights violation that people like Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez are committing in Venezuela."
