Saint Joseph/The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered this Wednesday the closure of El Helicoide, the government building accused of being a torture center for Chavismo, by issuing a ruling in the case of the detention in 2003 in that place of a student and condemning the Venezuelan State for it.
“The Court considers it pertinent to order the State to order, within a period of 18 months from the notification of this ruling, the closure of the El Helicoide detention center,” the Court indicated.
The international court also ordered “that the transfer of the people detained there be carried out in accordance with the standards established in the American Convention on personal integrity, personal liberty and due process.” In its ruling, the Court indicates that it verified that several international institutions and organizations that monitor the human rights situation in Venezuela have determined that people deprived of liberty in El Helicoide have been subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Inter-American Court declared the Venezuelan State responsible for restricting the participation of student Jorge Rojas, 30, in a peaceful protest
In particular, the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, created by the United Nations Human Rights Council, indicated that there were sufficient reasons to affirm that a significant number of people deprived of their liberty in El Helicoide were victims of arbitrary detention, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The violations in question were carried out by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), a successor institution to that of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), according to the ruling.
The Inter-American Court declared the Venezuelan State responsible for restricting the participation of student Jorge Rojas, 30, in a peaceful protest, as well as for violating his freedom of thought and expression and his political participation.
Rojas was arrested during a police operation carried out by agents of the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (Disip) on September 19, 2003 in Plaza Francia de Altamira in the city of Caracas, within the framework of a day of protests against then-president Hugo Chávez.
The International Court also declared that state agents, who were not investigated, perpetrated acts of torture against Rojas when he was in state custody, during his detention and deprivation of liberty in the El Helicoide detention center.
As explained by the Inter-American Court, “the violation of Rojas’ right to personal integrity occurred in a context of impunity in the face of generalized violations of the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the context of arbitrary detentions in El Helicoide.”
Rojas “was subjected to acts of torture, he was beaten in different parts of his body, he was subjected to threats of sexual violence, numerous abuses, he was pointed at with firearms, and the subject of mock executions,” the ruling adds.
In August 2004, a Venezuelan court sentenced Rojas to four years and six months in prison for the crimes of illicit possession of a weapon of war, public intimidation and resistance to authority. Rojas’ legal defense filed appeals, but they were declared invalid by the Court of Appeals.
Finally, in June 2009 the Sixth Court of First Instance of Execution declared the extinction of Rojas’ criminal responsibility and ordered his full release.
