A/HRC/45/CRP.11 notes that read “18-10-16 To: Óscar Rodríguez. God Bless you. Bon appetit” and “18-10-16 Hello my son, as you awake, God bless you, how are you? For: Óscar Rodríguez”.2099 1186. On 2 November 2016, prosecutors searched El Café military base, following a complaint filed on 27 October by relatives. The prosecutors found numerous printed photos with the names of the detainees and their identification numbers. They established that the photographs had been taken in the military base itself. 2100 Torture in El Café Military Base 1187. Soldiers are accused of torturing the detainees to gather information about the whereabouts of members of criminal gangs that operated in the region. 2101 The Public Prosecutor’s Office, based on the autopsy report, concluded that the deceased were subjected to electric shocks on various parts of the body, including genitals, tear gas inhalation and blows with blunt objects.2102 1188. According to victims and witnesses, there were at least two torture areas within El Café military base. The first was a small room with standing room for five, known as “El Tigrito”, in which naked detainees were exposed to teargas.2103 The second torture area was an office to which detainees were brought blindfolded with wrists and feet tied together. The soldiers placed stockings in their mouths and forced them to lie on the floor, before pouring water over them and electrocuting them.2104 1189. Among the torture allegations later made by El Café military base survivors or their family members are the following: • The mother of a man who had been released also said her son had been drugged. 2105 • One survivor reported that he had been tortured with blunt and short sharp objects, in order to provide information about the “Coyón gang”.2106 • A detainee’s mother said soldiers had administered electric shocks to her son’s genitals. Her son was beaten so badly that he required surgery and was hospitalized for 17 days.2107 • An adolescent survivor told the press that soldiers had stripped him naked and beaten him with the butt of a rifle, before hanging him by the arms from the ceiling and interrogating him about the gangs. He stated, “They told me, ‘we are going to play a little game […]. It is called electrocution’”. They administered shocks to his abdomen, neck, penis, buttocks, back, hands – “I felt like my eardrums would explode”.2108 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103 2104 2105 2106 2107 2108 Public Prosecutor’s Office, Barlovento: informe sobre víctimas y hechos ocurridos en Barlovento: masacre a 12 personas, February 2017, p. 30, available at: https://lortegadiaz.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/12/barlovento-ultima-version4-16-05-2017.pdf. Mission Interview C4FF09 in February 2020. Efecto Cocuyo, Obreros, estudiantes, agricultores: ¿Quiénes eran las víctimas de la masacre de Barlovento?, 16 December 2016, available at: https://efectococuyo.com/la-humanidad/obrerosestudiantes-agricultores-quienes-eran-las-victimas-de-la-masacre-de-barlovento/. See also The New York Times, In a brutal year in Venezuela, even crime fighters are killers, 30 December 2016, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/world/americas/venezuela-violence.html. Public Prosecutor’s Office, Barlovento: informe sobre víctimas y hechos ocurridos en Barlovento: masacre a 12 personas, February 2017, p. 9, available at: https://lortegadiaz.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/12/barlovento-ultima-version4-16-05-2017.pdf. Document C4FF09 on file with the Mission. Document C4FF08 on file with the Mission. VPI TV, Exclusivo: Habla madre del joven que sobrevivió a la masacre de Barlovento, minute 4:50, 30 November 2016, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5gvayMxxrc. Efecto Cocuyo, Obreros, estudiantes, agricultores: ¿Quiénes eran las víctimas de la masacre de Barlovento?, 16 December 2016, available at: https://efectococuyo.com/la-humanidad/obrerosestudiantes-agricultores-quienes-eran-las-victimas-de-la-masacre-de-barlovento/. VPI TV, Exclusivo: Habla madre del joven que sobrevivió a la masacre de Barlovento, minute 1:00, 30 November 2016, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAQ8sknd-44. The New York Times, In a brutal year in Venezuela, even crime fighters are killers, 30 December 2016, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/world/americas/venezuela-violence.html. 233