Former political prisoners of Venezuela's Rodeo I prison say they remain haunted by the punishments they endured at the hands of hooded jailers inside the country's most notorious prison.
The maximum-security facility is one of four towers that make up El Rodeo prison on the outskirts of Caracas and is reserved exclusively for opponents of the government.
Several former inmates have come forward to describe conditions inside the prison, despite fears of reprisals from the authorities who imprisoned them.
"This was it. The movie's over," Whillfer Pina remembers thinking when he first arrived with a hood over his head.
The prison director's welcome did little to ease his fears.
"No one gets out of here alive," the man known as "Shark" told the 47-year-old maths teacher and activist.
Pina had been accused of plotting an attack against then-president Nicolas Maduro in 2024. He was released in February under an amnesty process for political prisoners spearheaded by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, who replaced Maduro after his ouster by US forces in January.
Many others, however, remain imprisoned in Rodeo I and other prisons across Venezuela.
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