El Helicoide stands out from the other prisons in part because of its history: In the 1950s, architects conceived it as a futuristic mall, but the building went unused until Maduro repurposed it as a series of torture chambers. Some Venezuelans have come to see El Helicoide as the defining monument of Maduro’s rule. With his pyrotechnic display, which came as the Trump administration was intensifying its rhetoric against Maduro and striking boats off of Venezuela’s coast, Maduro seemed to be sending a brazen message: His regime was holding together, and its repression would not relent.