[6][7][8][9][10] The General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) is known to operate a torture centre in its headquarters in Caracase, known as the Casa de los Sueños (English: "House of Dreams").

Zaida Peraza (28) Darwin Argüello (21), Ángel Salas (21) and Félix Pinto (22), were found in two different locations on the outskirts of Caracas with signs of having been tortured, bound hand and foot, having been killed with a shotgun at point blank range.

The leader of the group, Enrique Medina Gómez, stated that several witnesses saw how the soldiers, along with two women accompanying them, were detained and forced to board two pick-up trucks by men dressed in black and with their faces covered with balaclavas.

[18] On 17 December 2009, Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was detained at the National Institute for Female Orientation (INOF), a women's prison on the outskirts of Caracas, after releasing of Eligio Cedeño.

"[21] By late February 2014, the NGO Foro Penal declared that it documented at least 33 cases of torture whose victims formally denounced before prosecutors and judges the abuses to which they were subjected.

Gonzalo Himiob, a director of the organization, declared that the abuses were "continuous and systematic" and that Venezuelan authorities, including the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) were "generally accused of beating detainees, in many cases severely, and many people have indicated that the security forces have robbed them, taking their cell phones, money and jewelry".

[23] A Panel of Independent Experts appointed by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States documented several cases where detaines suffered abuse during both their arrest and detention afterwards and did not have access to medical treatment while in custody.

[24][25] When they were detained on 24 February and during their transfer, Andrea Jiménez and a companion were threatened with rape, death and dismemberment, insulting them with the terms "guarimberos", "squalids" and "bourgeois".

[26][25] During their detention from 12 March 2014 in Barquisimeto, Lara state, Keyla Brito and her daughter Karkelys were stripped naked in the National Guard 47th detachment, being beaten and insuted.

[27][28][29] In another case, on 19 March 2014, a member of the Bolivarian National Police pointed a gun at Gloria Tobón's head during a protest in Táchira state, while another officer told him to "kill that bitch".

[32] A former official of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) told the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela that its director, Carlos Calderón [es], was directly involved in torture within the agency during the protests.

[35][36][37] Protester Juan Manuel Carrasco [es] was beaten and sodomized with an automatic rifle by National Guardsmen, forensic tests after his detention corroborated the assault.

[41] The director of Foro Penal, Alfredo Romero, asked both the opposition and the Venezuelan government to pay attention to the unheeded calls on human rights violations.

[42][43] The Attorney General's Office reported that it was conducting 145 investigations related to human rights abuses and that 17 security officials had been detained in connection with these events.

[53][54] The IACHR document noted that Saleh and Guerrero were "located in a basement (five floors below ground), known as La Tumba, of the building that serves as the main headquarters of the SEBIN", where they are subjected to "prolonged isolation without contact with other people, in a confined space of 2 × 3 meters, with video cameras and microphones in each of their cells, without access to sunlight or outdoors," and the two prisoners have reported suffering from "nervous breakdowns, stomach problems, diarrhea, vomiting, spasms, joint pains, headaches, dermatitis, panic attacks, muscle disorders and temporary disorientation" without "presumably receiving adequate medical attention."

The Commission considered that the students "are in a situation of seriousness and urgency, since their lives and personal integrity would be at risk", and asked the Venezuelan government to adopt the measures necessary to preserve the life and personal integrity of detainees, in particular to provide adequate medical care in accordance with the conditions of their pathologies, and to ensure that their detention conditions are in accordance with international standards, taking into consideration their current health status.

[57] On 2 July 2017, a group of twenty-eight students from the Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador in Maracay, Aragua state, who were staying overnight on campus as part of demonstrations were arrested in the early morning.

One of them, in addition to being threatened and beaten, had dirt poured on a head wound caused by the beatings, had pepper spray thrown in his face, had his hair cut with a knife and had his clothes torn, and extorting him for money to be released.

[59] Orlando Moreno, a student and representative of the Come Venezuela opposition party, was hung in a stress position in La Pica Prison [es] after being arrested on 27 June and refusing to make a video confession.

[66] Venezuela's intelligence agency, SEBIN, was ordered by President Maduro on 16 April to take legal actions against individuals who state that they have been tortured by authorities.

[14] When the Royal Audiencia was deposed and the Supreme Junta was established, the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence explicitly stated that the death penalty was abolished, torture was forbidden and that courts would presume innocence.

[71] La Rotunda grew in prominence under the governments of Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez between 1900 and 1935, who heavily utilized the prison for political persecution.

With this he wanted to give strength to his recently inaugurated and fragile mandate because, from his position as minister, it was very unlikely that López Contreras was unaware of what was happening to the prisoners of La Rotunda.

[79] In the National Security headquarters throughout the country, political prisoners were subjected to different methods of torture, such as the ice chamber, standing up barefoot in a car rims, blows with steel balls, electric bands, batons and other forms of physical mistreatment.

[82] In 1976, during the first government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, the leader of Revolutionary Left Movement and founder of the Socialist League, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was detained by agents of the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), who tortured him to death.

[78] Amnesty International reported that "[t]orture and ill-treatment are widespread in Venezuela, in some cases resulting in death", describing abuse techniques used by authorities as "simple but sophisticated...designed to cause maximum pain with the minimum of marks."

It included beatings, blows to sensitive areas (including genitals), use of batons, blows to ears often resulting in ruptured eardrums, asphyxiation in water (sometimes with feces and urine), asphyxiation with bags (sometimes with addition of ammonia or insecticide), "peinillazo" beatings with unsharpened sabres known as peinillas, shocks with cattle prods to sensitive areas and strappado positions, dangling detainees from their bound wrists.

[90] In March 2015, the United States froze assets and revoked visas of several senior officials connected to human rights abuses in Venezuela; these sanctions were condemned in Latin America.