picana

Although working on the high voltage and low current principle, these devices are different from the picana.

There are said to be no reports of the use of the picana elsewhere in the world.

Electrical torture has been and is used in many countries, but the equipment used does not include the picana.

The distinguishing feature of the picana is that the shocks are high voltage and low current.

They started using the picana (an electric prod).

The picana has a number of advantages as an instrument of torture:

Two people operate the picana.

As it has no legitimate alternative use, the manufacturers and users of the picana do not publicise details of the devices.

The picana is a wand or prod that delivers a high voltage but low current electric shock to a torture victim.

The picana is an electric prod based originally on the cattle prod but designed specifically for human torture.

The picana was adapted from the electric cattle prod, a device developed for use as a goad in animal slaughterhouses.

As with all types of torture, the picana has been used as often to frighten and intimidate as to extract information during interrogation.

Reports can be confusing because the word picana is sometimes used to describe any prod or device used to administer electric shock during torture.

The picana or picana electrica is a device used to give an electric shock during electrical torture.

As part of the usefulness of the picana arises from its high voltage, it is possible that more recent models use modern electronics for even higher voltage.

While superficially similar to the picana, they use mains, or lower, voltage rather than the many thousands of volts of the true picana.

The picana is easy to use - the control adjusts the severity of the shock and the prod enables the shock to be delivered precisely in the desired spot.

He was a great promoter of the minstrel art, and through its counterpoints he earned the nickname "La picana rochense (The rochense goad) for his picaresque character and sharp and mocking responses.

According to an academic expert on torture, Professor Darius Rejali of Reed College, early models of the picana used over 50 years ago delivered between 12,000 and 16,000 volts at a current of a thousandth of an amp.

Then, pulling out a crumpled newspaper picture and showing it to me, La Dulce, who never supported or joined the Sandinistas, added: "This man was the one who kept putting the picana" - an electric rod attached to a portable generator - "in my son's mouth.

One of Uriburu's first initiatives was to establish an illegal repressive state structure, creating a "special section" of the police which could be used to systematically torture his opponents and which was the first such police division to use the picana, originally for cattle, against its victims.