"It was designed in the 1950s to be the world's first drive-through shopping centre, a futuristic structure with more than than two miles of ramps looping past 300 shops, as well as cinemas, a hotel, a private club, a concert hall and a heliport. But the building was never completed, and under the regimes of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, spaces envisioned as shops were turned into cells, and El Helicoide became Venezuela's most notorious torture centre for political prisoners."
"The horrors committed at El Helicoide have already been sufficiently documented and exposed by numerous human rights organisations and by a United Nations mission, said Martha Tineo, coordinator of the NGO Justicia, Encuentro y Perdon (Justice, Encounter and Forgiveness, or JEP), one of the groups that have for years supported political prisoners and their families. We welcome the fact that it will be shut down but not so that it can be turned into some kind of social or recreation centre, Tineo said."
"The giant structure, which looms over central Caracas, will be turned into a sports, cultural and commercial centre for police families and neighbouring communities, Rodriguez said on Friday."
Designed in the 1950s as the world's first drive-through shopping centre, El Helicoide was never completed and its ramps and shops were repurposed as prison cells under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. The facility became Venezuela's most notorious centre for the detention and torture of political prisoners, with abuses documented by human rights organisations and a United Nations mission. Under US pressure, acting president Delcy Rodriguez, who previously oversaw the prison as Maduro's vice-president, announced plans to shut El Helicoide and convert it into a sports, cultural and commercial centre for police families and neighbouring communities. Activists welcome closure but condemn plans to sanitise or rehabilitate a site of repression.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]