The youth politician says he was on an errand when a group of men in hoods intercepted him, covered his face and beat him, accusing him of being a terrorist.
“I was doused with bottles of incendiary mixture and gasoline, and then taken to the detention center,” he continued.
He was held in a prison in the interior of Venezuela for several weeks before being transferred to Tocarón, a notorious maximum security prison located about 140 km southwest of the capital, Caracas.
There he had what he describes as the worst experience of his life.
“When we arrived in Tokaron, we were stripped, beaten and insulted. We were forbidden to raise our heads and look at the guards; we had to lower our heads to the floor,” says Juan.
Juan was assigned a small cell measuring three by three meters, which he had to share with five other people.
There were six beds on three bunks, and in one corner there was a septic tank and a “pipe that served as showers.” It was a bathroom.
“In Tacoron, I felt more like a concentration camp than a prison,” says the young man. He describes the beds as “concrete tombs” with very thin mattresses.
“They tortured physically and psychologically. They didn’t let me sleep, they kept coming to ask me to get up and line up,” he explains.
“We woke up around 5:00 a.m. to line up behind the camera. The guards asked to show the passes and numbers.”
He adds that around 06:00 the water was turned on for six minutes so that they could bathe.
“Six minutes for six people and only one shower with very cold water. If you were the last one and didn’t get the soap off, you were stuck in the soap for the rest of the day,” he says.
Then, he adds, they waited for breakfast, which came sometimes at 6 o’clock, then at 12 o’clock.
Dinner is sometimes at 9:00 p.m., then at 2:00 a.m.
“There was nothing else to do but wait for food. We could only walk around the small cell and tell stories. We also talked about politics, but quietly, because if the guards heard us, they would punish us. “
