Venezuela plan to turn notorious prison into cultural centre scrubs past horrors, critics say
The move is among several measures the acting president has touted since Maduro’s capture – yet critics say it erases Venezuela’s long history of repressionIt was designed in the 1950s to be the world’s first “drive-through shopping centre”, a futuristic structure with more than than...
<p>The move is among several measures the acting president has touted since Maduro’s capture – yet critics say it erases Venezuela’s long history of repression</p><p>It was designed in the 1950s to be the world’s first “drive-through shopping centre”, a futuristic structure with more than than two miles of ramps looping past 300 shops, as well as cinemas, a hotel, a private club, a concert hall and a heliport.</p><p>But the building was never completed, and under the regimes of Hugo Chávez and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/nicolas-maduro">Nicolás Maduro</a>, spaces envisioned as shops were turned into cells, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/15/el-helicoide-venezuela-caracas-building-symbol">El Helicoide</a> became <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/venezuela">Venezuela</a>’s most notorious torture centre for political prisoners.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/05/el-helicoide-delcy-rodriguez-venezuela">Continue reading...</a>
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