Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro marked the start of Christmas celebrations on October 1 by launching fireworks from El Helicoide, a Caracas detention facility widely documented as a site of torture. The building, headquarters of the country's intelligence service SEBIN, continues to hold dozens of political prisoners. "They believe that with their campaigns they will demotivate, frighten, and keep people at home, that there will be no Christmas here. International observers have repeatedly described El Helicoide as a center of systematic abuse. It concluded that arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances form part of a broader strategy of political persecution in Venezuela.