22 authorities, who told him that he should not waste his time, that his brother was a criminal and that he was already dead. At that time, it was impossible to obtain information because they were about to be buried; they were just waiting for bags to bury the bodies in a mass grave. He entered the hospital without authorization and, using a flashlight, he found an area of about 2 x 3 meters and a large pit of 2 x 1.5 meters. He saw several bodies, but not his brother’s. It was a terrible ordeal; there was a very strong putrid smell. Then they opened the door of a pit where there were around fifteen bodies, among which he recognized his brother’s corpse. Afterwards, the witness called his sister and his wife to tell them that they had found him. His death brought great sorrow to his next of kin. n) Statement of Nellys María Madriz, wife of Víctor Jesús MonteroAranguren Detention Center of Catia was “unfit for human beings.” When she learned what happened, she reported it to the public prosecutor's office, the police and even took witnesses with her, but they “would not pay heed to her complaints.” She wants “the authorities to, at least, investigate who […] killed so many prisoners and to arrest them, no matter how long it takes […]. They forced them to escape, the so-called ley de fuga (law of flight; i.e. forcing prisoners to run in order to kill them under the false pretense that they were trying to escape). The State had already indicted them […] and they forced them, until they all began to escape. Some escaped and those who stayed were killed inside. They would run to the bathroom, to the cell, wherever they tried to hide, the metropolitan police or the guards would go after them and shoot them.” She is still deeply affected by the death of her husband. Fourteen years have gone by and she still suffers from nervous tension. At that time, she had two small children who were always sick. o) Statement of Arturo Peraza, Jesuit priest By the time he began his work in Detention Center of Catia, there were approximately three to four thousand inmates. He began to work in an area known as “North Hall 2,” which housed the craftsmen, supposedly one of the quietest areas. However, the population in that hall was armed, there were lots of drugs, problems with stinking water, bad power supply, poor diet and malnutrition; some inmates were constantly locked up in their cells and could not go out, sit in the sun, circulate around some area or simply walk. In this area, prisoners were afraid of going out for food because they could be killed. Usually, there was one inmate in charge of bringing food, or the daily food ration, which was rather meager. The basement area got no natural light; it was a dark and cold place. The witness recalls that the floor and walls were slippery, covered with human excrement to such an extent that it seemed to be part of the concrete. Inmates suffered from a number of diseases, most of which were parasitic or skin diseases. They were almost always half-naked. The witness remembers that the floor was slobbery, full of excrement, just like the walls, so much that they were caked with it, i.e. it was part of the concrete of the prison. Inmates suffered from various diseases. The witness says that the prisoners insisted that he should see something they called ‘the source’. At five thirty in the