In prison there are only bad days and worse days, says victim of Nicolas Maduro’s brutal regime

Ivan Colmenares Garcia had all the necessary permits for his routine entry into Venezuela when the Colombian lawyer was forcibly stripped, bound, blindfolded and imprisoned.

The 35-year-old man was humiliated for a year, tortured with sleep deprivation, kept in a freezing basement and kept in a crowded prison where the toilet flooded his cell.

But he was one of the lucky ones. Others described having their nails pulled and their hands thrown into boiling water in barbaric torture sessions.

Among those currently detained are two brothers of opposition politician Tomas Guanipa. He refused to leave Caracas and on Monday boldly waved a T-shirt demanding the release of more than 700 political prisoners from the Venezuelan Congress.

Despite hopes that they would be released following the extraordinary capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, Donald Trump has not once mentioned them.

Today Mr Garcia reveals the full horrors of the regime’s prisons and Congressman Guanipa speaks to the Daily Mail from Venezuela, urging the US leader to demand their release.

“They are ordinary people,” Mr. Garcia said, urging the US President to “show mercy.”

‘They are parents, they are fathers, they are mothers, they are sons. But they can regain their freedom.’

Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (pictured) was captured by US forces and flown to New York where he will face drug charges

Mr Gaunipa agrees. ‘We’re really hopeful right now, but the real issue should be political prisoners,’ he says.

‘Beyond economic interests, if any country wants to help Venezuela the main concern should be the prisoners.’

As exiled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado vowed yesterday to ‘return to Venezuela as soon as possible’, fears are growing that the autocratic regime will remain.

Ms. Machado called for a transition that would allow her to come to power, but it appeared the CIA believed Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, would be a better administrator to maintain stability.

The Wall Street Journal claims that people familiar with the briefing advised against installing Machado as leader on the grounds that it could lead to a security crisis as armed military groups rebel.

This is deeply worrying news for the families of political prisoners languishing in Venezuela’s notorious prisons.

Mr. Garcia will never forget the day Maduro’s goons detained him as he crossed the border near his home in Arauca, Colombia.

After being held in a side room for six hours, a black truck full of armed men pulled up. They took his phone and took him to the interrogation room.

Mr Garcia told the Daily Mail all the horrors in regime prisons; These included being tortured by sleep deprivation, being held in a freezing basement, and being held in a crowded prison

He said he was ‘very scared’ at that moment.

He was made to lie on the ground among armed men who swore at him and asked for his ‘nickname’.

At 10am he was undressed and photographed before being dressed, blindfolded and put on a bus. Disoriented, he could hear the armed guards laughing outside as they shot at the deer.

‘I was very scared,’ he said. ‘This journey took eight hours, I thought I was going to die.’

When they arrived in Caracas, they stole his watch and jewelry and forced him to undress once again to take photographs.

‘Then they took me to a place they called a fish restaurant,’ he said. ‘It was in the basement, six air conditioning units had been installed; It was literally freezing. Icy.

‘I was shaking everywhere, my whole body was shaking. I was allowed to stay there for a month. Do not shower for the first 15 days. Dry arepas only [flat bread] for food.”

When he was finally allowed to wash, he was stripped once again and ordered to wait outside in a line of naked prisoners. ‘The water was ice cold,’ he recalls.

‘There were 100 of us in the fish bowl. Two or three of us had to sleep on one mattress.

Maduro, 63, whose photo was taken in 2021, is currently facing narco-terrorism charges in the United States along with his wife, who have both pleaded not guilty

‘The lights were on 24/7. There is never a moment of darkness. We were woken up at 5am and had to spend the whole day sitting on chairs until 9pm. ‘No talking.’

It was full of Europeans, Americans and South Americans.

‘There was a Swiss guy who did a beauty business, a Spanish guy who came as a tourist,’ she said. ‘We were just a piece of coin to them; We were chosen at random in case we were useful.’

A month later he was taken to a maximum security prison, where he was branded as one of Venezuela’s most wanted new prisoners.

‘Our faces were covered, I thought I would be released,’ he said. However, when his mask was removed, he was surrounded by armed men. ‘They had ski masks. All you could see were their eyes. The main man said he was called ‘Shark’.’

They were taken to the prison with their faces covered; two people per cell. ‘My European cellmate, in his 50s, was my support,’ Mr Garcia said. He adds quietly: ‘He’s still there now.’

They were forbidden from speaking and had to wait until the guards did not want to whisper to each other. Once every two weeks they were allowed out into a small courtyard.

The cell had a hole in the floor for the toilet, which frequently overflowed with waste from the 600 prisoners.

‘We had to clean it up,’ he said. ‘It was terrible, everything was terrible. I learned that there are no good days in prison. Just bad days and worse days.’

His family only learned what happened to him seven months later when he was given a phone call. He had five minutes with his mother.

Then, last November, he was once again blindfolded and put on a bus. When he was picked up, he found himself on the bridge to Colombia. ‘I have no idea why I was released,’ he said. ‘I was just part of a game.’

Although Mr. Garcia says he has “a shield” inside him after his ordeal, his voice only shakes when he thinks of his fellow inmates.

‘I left my very good friends in prison,’ he says. ‘My brothers.

‘Our only hope there was that there might be an international intervention.

‘But now a most extraordinary intervention has taken place, but they have done nothing for them. I believe this is the only way my brothers can be released; It’s in Trump’s hands.’

Natasha Duque, director of Operacion Libertad Internacional, which supports families of Colombian prisoners, said Mr. Garcia’s story was all too familiar.

“We are currently helping 18 such families,” he said. “Those who were released say they were tortured. One of them was forced to take a lie detector and his hands were thrown into boiling water.”

‘They stabbed his skin, the scars are still there. Another one, they took out their nails. “They have a strategy of detaining foreigners to create the idea that spies have infiltrated the country,” he says.

Congressman Guanipa knows why his brothers were kidnapped. He is the third most powerful member of the opposition, after his older brother Juan Pablo, Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez.

‘He was in solitary confinement for seven months,’ Mr Guanipa said. ‘We can’t see him, we can’t get any information about his whereabouts or condition.’

His other brother, Pedro, was held in the notorious El Helicoide prison for seven months; here, prisoners reported being beaten, given electric shocks, held in stress positions, and humiliated with feces.

Pedro has been under house arrest for four months but cannot be reached. Both face up to 40 years in prison.

Congressman Guanipa, who returned from six years of exile, said: ‘Of course I’m afraid. But I have the opportunity to help my country. I have no regrets.

‘The aim is the freedom of the prisoners and the freedom of our country. It is up to the Venezuelan people to achieve this on our own; This is our moment.’