El paraíso, in Spanish, means paradise. But for Carlos Izcaray, first cellist of the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, the Caracas barrio of that name is “absolute hell”. Barely able to walk, Mr Izcaray is nursing the wounds he says he sustained during 21 hours of torture, including electric shocks and severe beatings, by National Guard troops loyal to Hugo Chávez, the president, at the El Paraíso barracks. Mr Izcaray, 26, says, guardsmen bundled him into a van and “they put a gun in my mouth and forced me to sing pro-Chávez songs. “I swear I was going to die. They said they hoped that a state of emergency would be declared so that they could kill me,” he says, adding that he was only a bystander at opposition protests. Full Story
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