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. The device was a notorious innovation introduced by police chief Polo Lugones, son of the famous poet and novelist Leopoldo Lugones. Its use did not spread to other countries until the 1970s, when it was in use in Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay. There are said 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