Two Political Prisoners in Venezuela Describe Their Ordeal In Captivity: ‘Treated As Less Than Dogs’

Earlier this week, the Venezuelan regime, led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, announced that political prisoners would be gradually released.

In this context, two Italian citizens who spent 14 long behind bars, described their experience behind bars, calling it a nightmare.

As reported by El País, Alberto Trentini and Mario Burlò were the Italian nationals who returned to Rome on Jan. 13.

Trentini, 46, was working for a nonprofit organization in Venezuela at the time of his arrest, while Burlò, 52, had just arrived to the country to try to launch a business. Both were arrested without explanation in November 2024, though Italian authorities have interpreted their detention as a maneuver by the Maduro government to use the men as bargaining chips, either to secure the return of regime dissidents who fled to Italy or the release of jailed pro-government figures.

Both men were held at the Rodeo I prison, located in the city of Guatire, about 30 miles east of Caracas. The prison is widely known in Venezuela as the facility where the Maduro regime has held political prisoners for years. As noted by El País, no charges were ever filed against either man, they were denied access to a lawyer, and the Italian consul was only allowed to see them after spending six months in detention.

“We didn’t suffer physical torture, but psychological torture, yes,” Burlò said. “Not being able to speak with my children for a year…I made my first call after 11 and a half months. I was afraid they would kill me,” he added.

Burlò, like Trentini, described his time at Rodeo I as a nightmare, calling the prison a horrific place.

“It was worse than Alcatraz,” Burlò said. “We spent 14 months sleeping on the floor, with cockroaches.”

Speaking to the Italian press after returning to Rome, both men said they spent months crammed into cells with little to no light, where they could only take six steps back and forth.

They said their diet consisted almost entirely of corn arepas, passed through an opening in the cell door without seeing anyone. They also said that, unlike Venezuelan prisoners, they were not allowed family visits.

According to their testimonies, they were given just one hour of outdoor time per day, five days a week. Books were not allowed, and Trentini said they were given only a Bible in Spanish.

“I told the prison guards that even dogs have daily needs, and that we were treated as less than dogs,” Burlò said. In an interview with Italian news outlet La Stampa on Jan. 13, he added that the cell had a latrine built into the same concrete floor where he slept, and guards only came by twice a day with water to clean it.

“You had to choose between living all day with that stench or using your drinking water to wash the waste away,” Burlò added.

As described by Burlò, the worst part of their time at Rodeo I prison was at night.

“There were guards with their faces covered by balaclavas. They used aliases, and one of them called himself Hitler.”

For his part, Trentini has barely spoken to the press and limited himself to issuing a statement thanking Italian authorities for helping secure his release.

“We are very happy, but our happiness has come at an extremely high price. The suffering of these 423 endless days cannot be erased,” he said.

Their release came as a surprise. Days before they were freed, they were taken out of their cells, given clean clothes and even better food, a common practice in Venezuelan prisons so detainees regain weight and appear healthier.

“I lost 30 kilos, but I don’t care. What matters is having returned and being able to hug my children again. I got through these months thinking about them and about my friends. You could say I was kidnapped, like so many foreigners who are still there, 94 of them from 34 different nationalities, under fairly inhumane conditions,” Burlò said in the interview.

As El País reported, 42 Italians remain imprisoned in Venezuela, 24 of them for political reasons, according to Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is working to secure their release.

Originally published on Latin Times