You're going to tell us which cartel you're with...

El Diaro de Coahuila (September 6, 2014) Source: El Universal

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Police officers with the Single Command (Mando Unico) of Morelos use torture to pressure citizens to incriminate themselves. Victims recounted to El Universal how the police tried to link them to organized crime.

MEXICO, D.F. (El Universal).-CUERNAVACA.-

--Who do you work for?-- asked the Mando Unico police officer.  "For Autocam", answered the detainee.

--And who is that?, insisted the officer.

--Well, a business," answered the man.

"Oh, so you think you're funny?" said the cop, and immediately, blows rained on the sales representative and five of his friends detained while riding in a compact car. None of them could see the officers' faces because when they got out of the car they threatened them with firearms, handcuffed them and covered their heads with their T-shirts.

"You are sicarios (assassins) and you're going to tell us right now which cartel you belong to!", spat out the police commander, after they searched the vehicle and found a pistol, a semi-automatic 9mm.

The six men were handcuffed and beaten while made to climb into the cargo bed of Patrol Unit 9845 of the Single Command Police, where they were made to lie on their sides. That was the start of another episode of agony.

As soon as they touched the sheet metal, they cried out and contorted themselves because the surface was extremely hot and began to burn their legs, stomach, back and arms.

Apparently, the pickup had a problem with the exhaust, causing the surface of the truck bed to heat up. The detainees whimpered with the pain and tried to move, but when they did that, they would get beaten by the uniformed agents.

"I'M GETTING BURNED"

One of the detainees begged to be allowed to sit up. "I'm getting burned", he yelled insistently. "Shut up, you son of a bitch! Your sister can take more than you can", the cop responded. Another one received a blow to the head.

Under those conditions they were taken through several streets for almost an hour until the pickup entered the highway to head towards Torre Morelos (Morelos Tower), headquarters for the State Public Security Commission (CESP: Comision Estatal de Seguridad Publica).

The unloaded them there and took them into a room where there were at least three boxes built out of metal netting, like "kennels", one of the detainees described them.

One by one they were stripped naked and taken out of the cage to a corner of the room. A police officer forced them to put their head in a pail of water, while another policeman attached cables to apply electric shocks to their testicles.

"Which cartel do you belong to? Who's the boss?", the police kept asking them. "I'm a contractor", answered the detainee who suffered the most burns.  "You're the boss for the gang since you had the money", the commander replied. "That money is to pay my workers", the detainee answered.

That's the last thing he remembers because he fainted right after that and woke up in a bed in the IMSS (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social; Mexico's Social Security) Hospital No. 1. The diagnosis for three of the six detainees was second and third degree burns that required skin grafts.

The case reached the Morelos Human Rights Commission (Cdhemor: Comision de Derechos Humanos de Morelos), and in the file, it states that in its request for a report on the incident, the CESP responded to three of the petitions: "They already had the injuries".

DURING THE ARREST

The get-together was unplanned, the detainees say, and to celebrate, they chose a store in Colonia Constitucion , in the Jiutepec municipality, to drink beer. The six friends got in the car to go home at 6:00 in the afternoon on April 17, but they claim that they were surrounded by Mando Unico Police vehicles when they had gone three streets.

In their statements before the State Prosecutor, one of the detainees stated that the police ordered them to stop, subdued them at gunpoint and ordered them to lie on the ground. They handcuffed them and covered their faces.

The blows increased when they found a weapon.   (continues next page)


"When they got us out of the car, they cocked their weapons at all of us.  They handcuffed me and kicked me twice, then they put us on the patrol vehicle. They drove around in circles, and about an hour later, we got on the highway. Along the way, we were getting burned. I told him I was getting burned, I raised my head and they turned it around with a blow. 'If you turn your head we will kill you', the police officer told me", he declares in his criminal complaint for abuse of authority, injuries and whatever else may apply.

"When we got to Torre Morelos, I had burns on my arm, my leg and my breast; all on the right side. At the Torre, they told us to get down and made us kneel. They accused us again of being sicarios. They took my personal property and took me into a cage, then they threw me on the floor. My head was still covered and they continued hitting me. From there, they took us to be certified, but the nurses refused to do it and said hospitalization was required".

Then they put him in an ambulance and took him to the hospital; he was unconscious by then. From the IMSS hospital, they transferred him to the Jose G. Parres general hospital under guard, and the next morning he was taken to the offices of the Attorney General (PGR: Procuraduria General de la Republica), where they charged him with unlawful carrying of a firearm, but, lacking evidence to prosecute him, they released him that Sunday, without charges.

HE RECALLS THE TORTURE

Another of his friends says he recalls being tortured in sort of basement. He doesn't remember anything else, because he woke up in the IMSS hospital emergency room, where he remained for a month. His wounds required skin grafts on his right leg.

"I stayed there 15 days after the surgery, and on July 28, I went into surgery for another skin graft, and I'm still going for treatments. It's a burn of 25 centimeters (approximately 10 in.) around the right leg. On August 8, I had an appointment with the plastic surgeon."

The detainee with the most after effects says that when he was in the pickup bed he yelled to the police that he was getting burned and that he is diabetic. Under those conditions, he was taken to the torture room.

They wanted him to admit he was a member of a criminal organization. "I already told you, I'm a contractor", he sobbed.

"You're going to say you're a sicario", the police officer kept repeating while he submerged his head into the water and increased the intensity of the electric shocks, he declares.

The worst criminal charge against the man was that he had 10,000 pesos (approx. $775), but that money, he explained to the police, was to pay the brick layers, because he was in construction. "You're stealing", they accused him.

"I was shirtless and they saw my burns. Don't hit me any more, I told them, I am diabetic".

"If you're sick, why are you out drinking," they answered, and, again, the electric shocks.

Of the six detainees, only three were charged with unlawful carrying of a firearm. The rest were released. The detainee who admitted that the weapon was his argued in his defense that he was carrying it for self defense, and a federal judge allowed him conditional release.