The building has been a detention center where hundreds of Venezuelans and foreigners have been tortured, according to human rights organizations.
MIAMI, United States. – The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, announced that El Helicoide, headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and one of the detention centers most associated with Chavista repression, would stop operating as a prison to become “a center of social and sports services for the community,” according to media reports that covered her intervention during the opening ceremony of the judicial year at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
In that same appearance, Rodríguez assured that he would promote actions against corruption within the justice system, according to the same publications.
The Helicoide is an emblematic building in Caracas originally conceived – in the 1950s – as a futuristic shopping center project designed to be visited by car, with a spiral ramp, but it remained unfinished and over time it passed into the hands of the State and ended up used by security and intelligence agencies.
In recent years, the place has been pointed out in journalistic reports and reconstructions as a detention center where former prisoners and organizations have reported mistreatment and torture.
In 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern due to the conditions of detention in centers “previously administered by intelligence services (Helicoide and Boleíta)” and noted that they are not suitable for confinement, in part due to “the risks of mistreatment and incommunicado detention.”
Human rights organizations have also documented restrictions and conditions reported by relatives of prisoners there. Human Rights Watch, for example, has reported about cases of detainees in El Helicoide held incommunicado and about limitations on the delivery of food and basic items by family members. Amnesty International, for its part, has described to El Helicoide as a SEBIN detention center where people arbitrarily detained for political reasons have been held.
The news is part of a package of announcements linked to a general amnesty proposal that Rodríguez said would be taken to the National Assembly, in a scenario of releases and internal and international pressure around the situation of those detained for political reasons.
Rodríguez also announced this Friday a “general amnesty law” for political prisoners in the country and ordered that the initiative be sent to the National Assembly of Venezuela, with the aim of “promoting national coexistence,” according to his statement at an event held at the Superior Court of Justice.
“I announce a general amnesty law and order that this law be brought to the National Assembly to promote coexistence in Venezuela,” Rodríguez said. “I ask everyone that no one imposes violence or revenge, so that we all live with respect,” he added, after stating that it was a decision discussed with Nicolas Maduro.
The announcement aims to judicially close the files of those who have already been released from prison during the release process opened in January, and to expand the scope to the hundreds of detainees who are still imprisoned for political reasons, according to the reconstruction published by The Country.
