Video showing men tortured is from a movie, not after Venezuelan election | Fact check

Isabel C. Morales, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Video shows men tortured by the Maduro regime

[En Espa?ol: Video que muestra a torturados es de una película, no de elecciones venezolanas]

An Aug. 2 Instagram post (archive link) shows a video that begins with several partially undressed men hanging from a beam with their hands tied above their heads in a dark room. A man in a military uniform walks into the room and begins to speak to them in Spanish.

“Others will say it is a lie and even censor me, but I must show them. It is my duty as a patriot,” reads part of the text in the post in Spanish. "This is what the Venezuelan regime is doing.”

The Instagram post received more than 700 likes in a week.

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Our rating: False

The video clip does not show genuine footage from Venezuela. It's from a 2023 Netflix movie called "Simón," which is based on real events but not those related to the contested reelection of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in July.

Video is from 2023 movie, not authentic footage

The video featured in the social media post is a clip from the 2023 Netflix movie “Simón,” which is about a Venezuelan fighter exiled in Miami and his dilemma of staying in the U.S. or returning to his home country, according to IMDb.

Part of the video clip in the post can be seen in the movie's official trailer.

Diego Vicentini, a Venezuelan filmmaker and the director of “Simón,” said that for the movie, he interviewed several men who had experienced arbitrary detentions and torture in his country, according to Cinemacy. The scene visible in the Instagram post is based partially on those interviews.

Fact check: False claim US invaded Venezuela

The post has no tie to the election that spurred controversy in the South American country.

Venezuelan authorities declared Maduro the winner of the country's presidential election in July but have yet to provide voting tallies to prove the victory, leading to questions about the election's legitimacy, according to the Associated Press.

Independent exit polling and analyses found that opposition candidate Edmundo González won, The Washington Post reported. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that Gonzalez defeated Maduro and called for a peaceful transition in a statement on Aug. 1.

The election prompted protests in Venezuela, with demonstrators contending that Maduro did not legitimately win a third term. Thousands of protesters have been arrested, and international leaders have expressed their concerns about the South American country, according to PBS News.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Univision also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video is from 2023 movie, not men tortured in Venezuela | Fact check

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