Picana

The picana or picana electrica is a device

used to give an electric shock during
electrical torture.

Electric cattle prod

Description and use
The picana is a wand or prod that delivers
a high voltage but low current electric
shock to a torture victim. It has a bronze
tip and an insulated handle, and is
connected by wire to a control box with a
rheostat to raise or reduce the voltage.
Power is supplied by a car battery or by a
transformer connected to a mains wall
socket.

The victim is undressed and then tied to a

chair or table or hung upside down by the
ankles. Often water is thrown over the
victim to reduce the electrical resistance
of the skin and to increase the effect of
the shocks. Two people operate the
picana. One adjusts the rheostat control to
increase or decrease the voltage. The
other holds the picana and applies its tip
to sensitive places on the victim's naked
body, such as the head, mouth, armpits,
genitals, breasts and nipples.

The distinguishing feature of the picana is

that the shocks are high voltage, but with
limited energy per electric pulse. The high
voltage means the shocks are ample but
the low current means they are less likely
to kill the victim, enabling longer torture
sessions and many more shocks to be
given than with higher current torture
devices. According to an academic expert
on torture, 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.[1] By comparison the Taser and
other modern electric stun devices used
by police forces deliver many times that
voltage (which can deliver open-air
voltages of 50,000 volts, although the
voltage delivered to the victim is lower due
to the resistance of air and clothing,
averaging only 1,200 volts[2]). 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.

Precise details of the design are unclear. It

is designed and manufactured specifically
as a human torture device, the sale and
use of which is illegal in most countries of
the world. As it has no legitimate
alternative use, the manufacturers and
users of the picana do not publicise
details of the devices.

The picana has a number of advantages

as an instrument of torture:

It is portable and can be used without

complex installation, for example in
 anonymous surroundings or in the
victim's home.
It is cheap.
The low current means the torturers can
make a single session of torture last
longer, in the hope that it will be more
productive.
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.

As with all types of torture, the picana has

been used as often to frighten and
intimidate as to extract information during
interrogation.
Origins
The picana is a hybrid electroshock
weapon adapted from the electric cattle
prod, the precursor for today's stun guns.
Originally cattle prods were devices
developed for use as a goad in animal
slaughterhouses, but later were used on
humans as torture devices intended to
exact pain and incapacitate a person. The
picana is reported as having been used in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1932.[1] The
device was a notorious innovation
introduced by police chief Polo Lugones,
son of the famous poet and novelist
Leopoldo Lugones.[3] Its use did not
spread to other countries until the 1970s,
when it was in use in Paraguay, Bolivia and
Uruguay.

There are said[1] 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. Even in South
America, it appears not to have been used
in Chile, even though other electrical
tortures such as the parrilla were routine
there in the 1970s and 1980s, during the
dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Other electrical prods
Reports can be confusing because the
word picana is sometimes used to
describe any prod or device used to
administer electric shock during torture.
Prods can be as simple as wire with the
insulation removed from the end or a
screwdriver with a wire attached to the
metal shaft. While superficially similar to
the picana, they use mains, or lower,
voltage rather than the many thousands of
volts of the true picana.

Other high voltage devices such as the

stun gun or electroshock weapon that
have a more legitimate use in law
enforcement, for example for officer self-
defence or for incapacitating violent
suspects, are sometimes used
illegitimately for torture. Although working
on the high voltage and low current
principle, these devices are different from
the picana.

See also
Law
portal

Graduated Electronic Decelerator

Tucker telephone
Violet wand
References
1. Rejali, Darius. The Global History Of A
Torture Technology (http://academic.reed.e
du/poli_sci/faculty/rejali/articles/History_o
f_Electric_Torture.html)

2. "Facts about stun guns and their use in

Canada" (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
facts-about-stun-guns-and-their-use-in-cana
da-1.810288) . CBC News. Mar 20, 2009.

3. Seoane, María (2004). Argentina: el siglo

del progreso y la oscuridad, 1900-2003.
Crítica, p. 40. ISBN 950-49-1208-7 (in
Spanish)

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