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“That fellow can’t drink,” Lombilla told him. “We used the ele.tric needles over the mouth of the stomach where it hurts most arid a man can’t swallow or even take an enema for forty-eight hours after that.”

“You know more about this than I do,” Dr. Caride said frankly. ‘II can do nothing for this man. Have you any others?”

LombiIIa’s other prisoners were in comparatively good shape and the Police Chief showed the doctor around his workshop as if he were very proud of it. , The actual torture chamber was a room without windows and with only one strong light in the center of the ceiling: like a hospital’s operating room. “First we strip a man naked and whip him through the corridors to open his pores,” Lombilla explained. ‘.’Then we strap him to a table under the light and start with the needles. Afterwards we wrap him in w:et clothes to intensify the effect of the current and use the little machine on various parts of his body twisting the wires around his members as tightly as possible. If that doesn’t work, he is taken: off the table and his head is stuck in a bucket of water. He is forced to swallow the water and then beaten over the belly with wooden paddles until he vomits it up again. It works best in icc water because the sudden shock causes him to gasp and swallow more water than he would ordinarily. I learned that trick from President Morinigo’s Police Chief in Paraguay. I was sent to Paraguay to take a course in questioning prisoners from him. He’s a brilliant man who has devoted his ‘ life to ‘this sort of thing. “

As Dr. Caride departed, Lombilla remarked; “I know you won’t say anything because otherwise you’ll be in here yourself. We’ll simply give out a notice to the press that you were hit by a car while crossing the street.”

Dr. Caride said nothing until he managed to reach the United States. [^3]

3,Ibid., pp. 194-196.

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