This is actually one of the most disturbing scenes that I
found when I read this book. Chapter Eleven narrates how Maria Teresa, the youngest of
the four Maribel sisters, is taken from her cell, and brought to a torture room. There,
she is stripped to her underwear. She is made to watch as her husband is brought in and
beaten up. Then, in an effort to persuade her husband to reveal information, the guards
torture her with electricity, in the hope that witnessing his wife in such pain might
encourage her husband to relent and give in. Note how Maria Teresa herself describes her
experience:
Bug Eye stood before me, holding a rod with a
little switch. When he touched me with it, my whole body jumped with exquisite pain. I
felt my spirit snapping loose, soaring above my body and looking down at the
scene.
What is interesting is
that after the torture is over, Maria Teresa reports that the guards who had carried out
this heinous act all looked ashamed of themselves for their participation in her
torture.
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