The Cocaine Diaries: A Venezuelan Prison Nightmare
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Viviana is still representing foreign prisoners, her honesty and hard work a breath of fresh air in an otherwise blighted system.
Billy is back with his family and looking for work, like most in Ireland.
Vito has returned to Italy, where he works in a successful family business.
After about a year on parole in Caracas, Bruce fled over the border to Colombia and soon after headed home Down Under.
Silvio returned to London.
Ricardo is back in Holland.
Roberto and Terry are still serving their time on parole in Caracas, as are most of the gringos I knew in Los Teques. Ruut, however, is still believed to be behind bars in another Venezuelan jail, stuck in some legal limbo.
Eddy was released six months after I got out on parole. I last heard he was back in Manchester, working in a fish and chip shop.
Un abrazo to all of you.
APPENDIX
‘It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.’
Nelson Mandela
Paul Keany spent more than two years in jail in Venezuela, held in some of the most appalling and dangerous prison conditions in the world. He maintains that he had no problem doing the time for his attempt to smuggle cocaine but that no one deserves what happened to him: he was raped by police officers, stabbed by an inmate, shot at by prisoners in cell-block gun battles and starved in forced hunger strikes over jail conditions and the painfully slow judicial process in Venezuela, where many are held for up to two years before going to trial.
In light of Nelson Mandela’s quote above, here we put Los Teques jail to the test, using the United Nations’ Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners document as a benchmark.
Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners
(A/RES/45/111, United Nations, 68th plenary meeting, 14 December 1990)
1. All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.
Venezuela: FAILED. Paul Keany was raped by two National Guard anti-drugs officers while held in their custody for five days handcuffed to a staircase with no access to food or water.
9. Prisoners shall have access to the health services available in the country without discrimination on the grounds of their legal situation.
Venezuela: FAILED. Los Teques prison authorities repeatedly failed to provide Paul Keany with access to an ambulance to attend a hospital with severe head pains, despite having secured a court order for same.
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
(Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and social Council by its resolution 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (lXII) of 13 May 1977)
9. (1) Where sleeping accommodation is in individual cells or rooms, each prisoner shall occupy by night a cell or room by himself . . .
Los Teques prison: FAILED. Paul Keany, along with most inmates in Los Teques, was forced to sleep on the floor in Los Teques for more than a year before buying the use of a bed from his cell-block boss.
12. The sanitary installations shall be adequate to enable every prisoner to comply with the needs of nature when necessary and in a clean and decent manner.
Los Teques prison: FAILED. Paul Keany was forced to share one toilet with up to two hundred inmates. Many had to defecate in plastic bags while held on the prison roof for up to eight hours during random cell-block searches by the National Guard.
22. (2) Sick prisoners who require specialist treatment shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals . . .
Venezuela: FAILED. Los Teques prison authorities repeatedly failed to provide Paul Keany with access to an ambulance to attend a hospital with severe head pains, despite having secured a court order for same.
63. (3) It is desirable that the number of prisoners in closed institutions should not be so large that the individualization of treatment is hindered. In some countries it is considered that the population of such institutions should not exceed five hundred. In open institutions the population should be as small as possible.
Los Teques prison: FAILED. Number of prisoners in Los Teques, an institution built for 350 prisoners, rose as high as 1,800, according to Paul Keany and campaign group Venezuelan Prison Observatory.
GLOSSARY
Abogado: Lawyer.
Agua: Literally means ‘water’, but in the context of this book it is slang for cops in navy-blue uniforms.
Asesinos: Assassins.
Bolos: Slang for Venezuelan currency, bolívares fuertes.
Bombas: Bombs.
Buggy: A bed cordoned off with curtains to allow privacy for inmates and their wives on conjugal visits.
Causa: Literally ‘cause’, but in the context of this book it means the sum of money the inmates paid to their wing jefe to protect them and defend the wing from attacks by other wing bosses. The money was used to buy guns, bullets and so on, but was also used for maintenance of the wing, for example, painting walls.
Colchoneta: Long, thin cushions rolled out onto the floor of the wing and used by the inmates as mattresses to sleep on.
Garita: Literally means ‘sentry box’: denotes an inmate on lookout duties at the wing door.
Guantes: Literally means ‘gloves’; in the context of this book it usually means boxing gloves.
Highlites: The name used by gringo prisoners for underbosses or second-in-commands, of which there are usually two.
Jefe: Boss. Also referred to as padrinos.
Luceros: A lucero literally means ‘bright star’, but used in the plural it means ‘eyes’. In the context of this book it denotes cell-block foot soldiers or henchmen, who are the ‘eyes’ of the wing bosses.
Luz: Literally means ‘light’, but it can also mean an incident coming to light, so in the context of this book it is the word cell-block bosses call out when they want inmates to assemble in the yard while they hide guns and drugs or deal with a prisoner they believe has stepped out of line.
Malandro: Literally means ‘scrounger’ or ‘scoundrel’, but it is also used by inmates to denote a ‘hard man’.
Mama huevo: Derogatory slang that basically means ‘cocksucker’.
Mañana seguro: ‘Tomorrow for sure’: a common phrase used in Venezuela meaning something will be done tomorrow if it doesn’t happen today.
Maricón: Literally means ‘weak’, but in the context of this book it is mostly used to refer to a gay man in a derogatory way, such as ‘fag’ or ‘queer’.
Masacre: Massacre.
Número: Literally means ‘number’, but in the context of this book it means the headcount performed by the prison cops.
Padrino: Boss.
Pato: ‘Duck’, as in the bird, not the verb ‘to duck’. Also used as a derogatory slang word for gay people.
Perico: Literally means ‘parrot’, but in the context of this book it is slang for cocaine.
Pernocta: The word used for visitors’ overnight stays in jail.
PWVs: Prisoners Without Visitors.
Rancho grande/cantina: The big canteen in Los Teques.
Sapo: Literally means ‘toad’, but in the context of this book it means ‘grass’ (i.e. an inmate who ‘rats’ on another or betrays the confidence of another).
Tobo: The word used for a ‘bucket’, which each inmate used to store their belongings and to sit on.
Verde: Literally means ‘green’, but in the context of this book it is slang for the Venezuelan National Guard because of their olive-green uniforms.
Visita: Visit.
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This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases, names of people have been changed to protect the privacy of others. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such respects, not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of this book are true
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the band Aslan for kind permission to reprint lyrics from ‘Crazy World’ (on p. 164)
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