Torture in a democratic country, 1989. Medical aspects

After a period of unrest in Caracas, Venezuela, in February/March 1989, Amnesty International (AI) received information about torture applied by security forces to people thought to have participated in or organised riots and lootings. In May 1989 a delegation from AI went to Caracas to collect and appraise testimonies of human rights abuses. The delegation consisted of two staff members from the AI International Secretariat, one lawyer and one physician. The primary task of the latter was to assess the validity of the testimonies about torture. A full report (1) including a legal analysis has been published by AI. This paper describes some of the medical aspects of the mission.