Reports of torture increase

El Universal

Silvia Otero

Translated for Borderland Beat by un vato.

According to the report, the problem grew between 2007 and 2011.

El Universal.  9-07-2012. Torture increased in Mexico during this six-year term within the context of the war against organized crime and drug trafficking.  It became a method of "investigation" that all the authorities have resorted to;  just in the period from January 2007 to February 2012, the National Commission on Human Rights (Comision Nacional de los Derechos Humanos; CNDH) reported 251 cases throughout the country that resulted in 56 recommendations, which shows that this practice is far from being eradicated.

This warning is from the document titled, "In the Name of the War Against Crime: A Study of the Phenomenon of torture in Mexico," (En nombre de la guerra contra la delincuencia : Un estudio del fenomeno de la tortura en Mexico) drafted by the organizations ACAT-Francia, the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center,  the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez, A.C., Human Rights Center (Centro Prodh) and the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI).

The report was released yesterday, two months before the U.N. Committee against Torture is set to evaluate Mexico, and it states that this practice "continues to be a modus operandi  in the system of justice."

It points out that, "despite how difficult it is to evaluate and compare existing data, the number of complaints or allegations that the CNDH has registered during these past years seems to show an increase in the phenomenon of torture." 

The evolution in the number of complaints alleging inhumane, cruel and degrading actions, the report indicates, leaves no doubt about the phenomenon: 330 (cases) in 2006;  395 in 2007; 987 in 2008; 1,105 in 2009, and 1,161 in 2010.

The report shows that "in the allegations of torture, the actions of the military and of the federal police are especially questioned." The complaints that the CNDH registered against the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) increased 1000% (one thousand per cent) between 2006 and 2009.

A work mission that carried out field investigations in several states led to the conclusion that "the majority of the accounts of torture, especially those related to cases involving organized crime, describe a recurring modus operandi."  

In all the cases,  "commandos of armed men wearing hoods quickly descend from trucks with no plates or markings. On the street, in their homes, in vehicles, they mistreat the people there and never identify themselves. People are arrested without being told why they are being detained."

When relatives look for the detainee with the federal or local authorities, the statements point out that police agents and officials "deny almost systematically that they are holding the person."

In this scenario, "the arrest and the first hours or days of the detention constitutes the most severe phase of the torture (accounts).  The person arrested is 'disappeared' and at the mercy of those interrogating him.  Often, the authorities admit they are holding the person and allow relatives to visit him only after the confession phase."

Part of the conclusions of the investigation reveals that, "during the Felipe Calderon administration (the practice) has evolved unfavorably and torture has increased."

Law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities "tend to resort to torture to carry out criminal investigations. According to a model observed frequently at the federal and state level, arbitrary detentions are multiplying, particularly through the abuse of the "caught in the act" (in flagrante delicto) basis (for detention). "

Instead of presenting the detainee immediately before a public ministry or before a judge as required by law, "the forces of law and order detain them in secret and torture them to obtain or condition their subsequent inculpatory confessions."

(The report) concludes that "the methods for reporting violations and carrying out the preliminary inquiry, investigation and punishment are often inefficient and do not allow prevention of new (cases of) torture and mistreatment."

Source: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/199818.html