The Argentine Gustavo Gabriel Rivara, released on February 2 after spending a year detained in Venezuelarevealed that when he was imprisoned in El Helicoide, headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), in Caracas, he remained incommunicado and without “any rights.”
“I had no rights and they let me know that. They told me to pretend I was in Guantánamo. I was the only foreigner in El Helicoide, we only had Colombian guerrillas, a couple of quite famous and heavy drug traffickers, and then I was the only Argentine in El Helicoide,” Rivara said this Monday in an interview with Radio Rivadavia from Ibagué, in Colombia.
About El Helicoide he said: “It is underground. It is under artificial light, dirty because vehicles pass above you. I have problems with my eyes because of the dirt. They don’t allow you to sleep properly because they take roll call, they wake you up very early, we were alert all the time. We were filmed all the time, we had cameras in the bathrooms.”
Rivara stated that there he saw women detained with children, separated from their family, all innocent people, without judicial process. “You only take comfort in the fact that there are others who did less than you to be there.”
In solitary confinement
According to his testimony, during the first three weeks after his capture he was in a research center, where he was interrogated.
“I was tied at the waist with a harness and handcuffs. They don’t allow you to take them off all day, you sleep with the handcuffs on,” he said. He said that he remained incommunicado without making a call for a year.
The Argentine, 52 years old, was arrested on January 18, 2025 in the city of Barinas when he was trying to return to Colombia, for having entered Venezuela “irregularly.”
He also reported that only ten months after being imprisoned was he able to defend himself in court, where he had been accused of treason.
About his release he said: “I didn’t think I was going to get out. Until the last moment I was sure they were going to transfer me, I thought I was going to die in prison.”
There are still more than 600 political prisoners
The NGO Foro Penal, which leads the legal defense of political prisoners in Venezuela, assured this Monday that There are still more than 600 of these detainees in the countryafter the 444 releases that the organization has verified since January 8, when the government announced a release process.
So far, the Argentine authorities announced the release of two citizens of the country who were detained in Venezuela: Rivara and Roberto Baldo – imprisoned since the end of 2024 -. They still demand that the gendarme Nahuel Gallo and the lawyer Germán Giuliani be released.
