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Protesters with a photo of the arrested Raúl Baduel (in 2019): The regime has locked the ex-minister ten meters underground behind seven armored doors
Photo: Edilzon Gamez / Getty Images
The captors of the Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro call the dungeon into which they banish their most dangerous opponents "La Tumba", the grave.
It extends ten meters deep in the center of Caracas under a skyscraper that houses the headquarters of the Venezuelan secret service Sebin.
This is where the leaders of the anti-regime protests have been imprisoned and tortured, and many of the soldiers who have rebelled against the Maduro dictatorship in recent years sit here.
Over 300 people are being held prisoner in Venezuela for political reasons, according to the human rights organization Foro Penal.
Anyone who ends up in »La Tumba« is practically buried alive.
Family members and former inmates report that a staircase winds down five basement floors. Originally they were supposed to be used to supply the subway.
The windowless cells are two by three meters, they have neither a toilet nor a sink.
A concrete bench is used for sleeping.
The prisoners are under video surveillance day and night, the guards often leave the lights on, so the inmates lose track of time.
Air flows into the cells from air conditioning systems, they spread icy cold.
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