The parrilla is a method of torture where the victim is strapped to a metal frame and subjected to electric shock.

The parrilla was used in a number of countries in South America, including Argentina during the dirty war in the 1970s and 80s and Brazil. In Chile during the Pinochet regime (1973 to 1990) it became notorious as a routine tool of interrogation.

The victim was stripped totally naked, then laid on his or her back on a metal frame, often a bed-frame. Straps were used to restrain the victim in a position convenient for torture, with legs spread and arms either above the head or away from the sides of the body. The straps were tightened to prevent movement.

Electricity was drawn from a standard wall socket and fed through a control box to the victim by two wires terminating in electrodes. The control on the box allowed the torturers to adjust the voltage and thus the severity of the electric shocks.

A variety of methods were used to administer the shocks. A common method, chosen to maximize pain and distress, was to use electrodes fixed to particularly sensitive parts of the victim's body for the duration of the torture session. In another method, a wire is fixed to the victim and a wire with a bare end or an electrode with a wooden insulating handle is moved around to touch different sensitive parts of the body in turn, so as to cause a current to flow through the body between the two electrodes. For a male, the fixed wire was wrapped around his penis. For a female, it was attached to an electrode – either a short metal rod or, for better electrical contact, a wetted steel wool pan scrub - and this electrode was inserted into her vagina. The torturer then touched the second electrode to different places on the body, such as the feet, mouth, nipples, breasts and genitals. This caused excruciating pain, at both the place where the second electrode touched the body and in the penis or vagina of the victim. Damage was often caused where the movable electrode was applied close to the point where the fixed electrode had been placed. It also caused intense pain and violent muscle contractions. Typically the person being tortured was kept blindfolded to add to the sense of helplessness as it was impossible to predict where and when the moving electrode would next be touched to the body.

Its physical effects were severe. When shocks were applied, victims say the experience was indescribably painful. Sometimes the violent muscle contractions in the restrained limbs caused them to fracture. Some prisoners even died.

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