Picana

The picana is a wand or prod that delivers a high voltage but low current electric shock to a torture victim.

It has a bronze tip and an insulated handle, and is connected by wire to a control box with a rheostat to raise or reduce the voltage.

The other holds the picana and applies its tip to sensitive places on the victim's naked body, such as the buttocks, armpits, legs, genitals, breasts and nipples.

According to an academic expert on torture, Darius Rejali of Reed College, early models of the picana used over 50 years ago delivered between 12,000 and 16,000 volts at a current of a thousandth of an amp.

The picana is a hybrid electroshock weapon adapted from the electric cattle prod, the precursor for today's stun guns.

Even in South America, it appears not to have been used in Chile, even though other electrical tortures such as the parrilla were routine there in the 1970s and 1980s, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.