Latin America
Human Rights in Venezuela: Who is Víctor Navarro?
Human Rights as an Inherent Value
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the inauguration of Hugo Chavez as president of Venezuela. Chavismo consolidated 25 years in power. Today, with Nicolás Maduro as the maximum leader of the regime, the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice ratified the disqualification of opposition leader María Corina Machado to run for the presidential elections to be held this year. This decision is a direct threat to the holding of free and democratic elections in the country, the main desire of Venezuelans and the international community.
The regime of Nicolás Maduro is violating the liberties and human rights of Venezuelans. Corruption, repression and torture have become a State Policy. The regime irregularly and arbitrarily detains opposition citizens in detention centers. "El Helicoide", an iconic 19-story building in downtown Caracas, which was built with the purpose of becoming the largest shopping mall in the country, today hosts political prisoners who are irregularly detained and are being tortured for the simple fact of thinking differently.
Victor Navarro is one of the survivors of the atrocities taking place in "El Helicoide" and his mission is to make visible what is happening in Venezuela in order to get the support of the international community to close the torture centers in Venezuela and the world. To this end, it created a virtual reality experience, "Helicoide Reality", which allows those who pass through the inhospitable torture center to feel the atrocities that Victor and hundreds of people had to live through as political prisoners of Chavism.
The experience allows one to enter in first person into a reality that is happening at this very moment in Venezuela, where political prisoners are being tortured, before the neutrality and complicity of some actors of the international community. Thirty survivors, with the help of professionals and trauma specialists, have narrated their experiences inside the torture center to recreate in the virtual reality experience what they lived in "El Helicoide".
Victor's activism and technology allow us to enter into what happens to the hundreds of political prisoners of Maduro's regime. After 25 years in power and with the disqualification of Maria Corina Machado, Chavismo ratifies its intention to remain in power and continue violating the inherent human rights of each individual. The violation of human rights that is taking place and that affects millions of Venezuelans must be exposed and voices must be raised to stop it. There is no place for neutrality in the face of what is occurring in Venezuela. A democratic solution to the crisis is the only alternative.