The torture of political prisoners in Venezuela and the perverse role of the Spanish left

Almost a month ago, five political prisoners released by Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship arrived in Madrid. None of them spoke to the media.

Shameful operation to hide and silence five of Maduro's political prisoners in Spain
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As we already saw here, those released political prisoners were taken off their plane via the airport tarmac, instead of going through the exit where journalists were waiting for them. The government of Pedro Sánchez prevented these prisoners from speaking to the media about the hell they experienced in Venezuela. It was a despicable maneuver by a socialist government that has common and very dark interests with the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship, a dictatorship that Sánchez's party, the PSOE, and its far-left partners protected in December 2024 by voting against asking Maduro to stop the repression in Venezuela.

That same day, another former political prisoner, the Venezuelan Sergio Contreras, explained that these released prisoners could not speak because "they have restrictions." Many of us watched in astonishment a situation we had never seen before in Spain: Spanish citizens prohibited from speaking in their own country about the torture they suffered in Venezuela, all with the complicity of the Sánchez government, which is particularly interested in keeping the brutality of the leftist regime in Caracas hidden to avoid embarrassing the Spanish left for its complicit role with that dictatorship.

Last night, Sergio Contreras appeared on Iker Jiménez's program "Horizonte" on the Cuatro channel. This Venezuelan journalist, currently in exile in Spain, described the horrific torture he himself suffered at El Helicoide, the large detention and torture center of the Venezuelan socialist dictatorship in Caracas. For the first time, many Spaniards heard what our government tried to hide a few weeks ago. We must thank Iker Jiménez for giving us the opportunity to bring these events to light.

Contreras declared that the Spanish left "has had an absolutely negative and absolutely condemnable influence" in Venezuela, speaking, for example, about the role of two of the founders of Podemos, the communists Pablo Iglesias Turrión and Juan Carlos Monedero, in the policies that led to the ruin of many Venezuelans. Let us also remember that a year ago Monedero went to El Helocide to give a talk on human rights to the torturers of the regime he supports (he is a personal friend of Maduro), a shadowy place linked to torture, sexual violence, extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and illegal detentions.

Sergio Contreras: "La izquierda política española ha tenido una influencia absolutamente negativa y condenable" #Horizonte pic.twitter.com/24BTuqm7KZ

— Iker Jiménez (@navedelmisterio) February 2, 2026

In "Horizonte", Contreras also spoke about the role of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, denouncing that the "dialogue processes" promoted by him served to "delay Maduro's departure". Contreras added: "I would like President Zapatero to ask himself: How many people ended up being tortured because of these negotiations? How many people lost their lives? How many young people were murdered? How many young people were shot in the chest and had their hearts ripped out by a soldier?" The former Venezuelan political prisoner added: "How many people could have been spared torture, cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment, and forced disappearances if he hadn't forced these dialogue processes that ended up prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people?"

Sergio Contreras: "Me gustaría que el presidente Zapatero se preguntara cuántas personas pudieron evitar ser torturadas si él no hubiese forzado esos procesos de diálogos que prolongaron el sufrimiento" #Horizonte pic.twitter.com/qeKlA7Lenk

— Iker Jiménez (@navedelmisterio) February 2, 2026

These statements by Contreras deserve serious reflection from Spanish society. For decades, the left has been trying to lecture millions of Spaniards who do not share their ideological views on morality. Socialists and communists have labeled as "fascists" all those who do not share their opinions, and they did so while supporting a brutal dictatorship in Venezuela that has kidnapped, tortured, raped, mutilated, and murdered countless political prisoners. Once Sánchez leaves power, Spain should initiate a process of accountability to punish the accomplices of this criminal regime, because their support has served to perpetrate crimes against humanity for which not only the perpetrators are guilty, but also those who supported and justified their criminal machinery.

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Photo: Efe. Dictator Nicolás Maduro with former socialist president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in October 2022.