Tamara Sujuaccompanied by the former president of the Spanish government, Felipe González, presented the annual report of the Casla Institute on systematic torture in Venezuela 2021, entitled License to kill and torture. The event took place at Espacio Ronda on May 18, 2022, in the city of Madrid, Spain.
According to Suju, executive director of the institute, this report aims to collect new testimonies from victims of repression and demonstrate that it is a policy of the Venezuelan State, where public authorities and institutions participate.
Casla Institute
As detailed in the Casla Institute report, among the most frequent methods of torture in the testimonies received in 2021 were hanging, suffocation, in some cases with toxic gases or ammonia, electric shocks, including the genital areas; the deprivation of livelihoods such as water, food or medicine; drowning; some victims attempted suicide to avoid further torture.
Among the new torture rooms were La Nevera and La Celdita, located in the DAES office in charge of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gramko Arteaga; The Doll’s Box, a kind of duct where there is no space to sit, no ventilation or light; and La Mariposa, a farm with several torture stations, a Dgcim training center. Rafael Acosta Arévalo and dozens of other victims were tortured there.
In this report, it is shown that these crimes are planned by the leadership of the civil and military power of Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro, Vladimir Padrino and Hernández Dala are familiar with the training of officers to torture, the construction or adaptation of official and clandestine torture centers, and the induction and commission of crimes against humanity.
Meetings to plan and learn
The Casla Institute learned that, at least once a month during 2014 and 2020, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of the Interior and Justice, the Minister of Defense, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, the attorney general of the Republic, the director of FAES, the director of Sebin and other guests who make up the high positions in the chain of command, depending on the moment. In these meetings the news about the counterintelligence work was known, the names of those who were being monitored as possible conspirators were exposed; also the possible elaborations and forgings of files to implicate or neutralize actions of the opposition, the country situation of the political prisoners. According to Suju, there is no way that generals, colonels and high-ranking officers can be imprisoned or tortured without all of them knowing about it.
For his part, former President Felipe González, who accompanied the presentation, supported the commitment to the truth and to denounce the responsibilities for the crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela that Suju has carried out.
“She has my full support, she is not only a committed woman, it is impossible for her to deviate from her goal of demonstrating how fundamental human rights have been systematically violated in Venezuela for so many years, crimes against humanity have been committed and that she has It was a strategy of the regime. Today the tribute should not only be for Tamara and the Casla Institute, but also for her inspiring Václav Havel”, she said.
Relaxation of sanctions
González, in relation to the possible easing of United States sanctions, asked not to be fooled because, according to him, Maduro is not going to submit to free elections that pay risks for his stability in power.
He affirmed that the denunciations of crimes against humanity brought to the International Criminal Court cannot be part of any negotiation and added that in Venezuela “there is no democratic regime because there is no rule of law, the TSJ has modified it for its benefit and there is an electoral census”.
He indicated that, “you cannot negotiate with the violation of human rights and the Commission for Crimes Against Humanity, you have to maintain an immovable line, despite the fact that everything else is discussed.”
To conclude, he asked Suju for strength and ratified that he has his support to continue denouncing a regime that is responsible for violating human rights and eliminating its opponents.
With information from a press release.
