“El Tatos” Controls Mexican Prisons with Brutality and Torture

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Zocalo

"El Tatos" or Luis "N"
Luis Fernando Arias Gonzalez Nieto 

October 26, 2017
Extra Material from MVT News Oct 31, 2017: Includes Video, Warning Extremely Graphic:
I cannot recommend watching it.

Mexico City.- A criminal group whose members are imprisoned in prisons in the State of Mexico and are headed by a subject identified as Luis Fernando Arias, "El Tato" or "El Tatos", who use torture and extortion, under the presumed complicity - at least by omission - of prison authorities, to obtain important amounts of money and material goods such as houses, land and even automobiles; Whomever does not give into their demands costs them their lives.

A package of several videos, delivered to the MVT News Agency, document the methods of torture used by this criminal group; they are videos that are delivered through third persons on the outside, to the relatives of their victims who are imprisoned in the Mexican penitentiaries, to pressure for the delivery of money and material goods, under such threat that, those who does not yield to their demands, "will be tortured until they die. " 

The agency reported that the relatives of inmates who are imprisoned in jails like El Bordo de Xochiaca, in Nezahualcóyotl; Chiconautla, in Ecatepec, and La Palma, in Almoloya de Juárez, requested on several occasions, via letter, the intervention of the Director of Prevention and Social Readaptation of the Government of the State of Mexico, Luis Arias González, to curb what they described as "an environment of terror and extortion against the prisoners ".

However, the inmate's relatives complained that they never received a response and, on the contrary, the mistreatment and aggression toward their prisoners increased.

"Several people are already dead. Those who did not tolerate torture, or those who they simply have already been squeezed, have no more to take from, and then they kill them, because they are no longer useful, " accused the sister of another prisoner who claimed to have made ten deposits of money in the face of extortion. 

According to relatives of the assaulted prisoners, several inmates have already been killed by this type of practice, and the most recent one was a 34-year-old man, who died on September 12.

"El Tatos", serving time for kidnapping, extortion and homicide, appears in videos beating an inmate and then spraying him with gasoline and using a lighter to burn him;  then he demands a sum of money and warns him that if by Saturday he does not have the amount he tells the inmate he will burn him completely. 

Another video shows the way in which the criminal hits another inmate for several minutes with a stick, because the deposit promised by the father of the victim has not arrived.

CODHEM OPENS RESEARCH

The Human Rights Commission of the State of Mexico (Codhem) initiated the complaint,  file  CODHEM / 650/2017, for alleged violations of fundamental rights of the inmates of the Mexican prisons on the actions of a presumed criminal group dedicated to the torture of others prisoners. 

The head of the organization, Jorge Olvera García, said: "We immediately opened the CODHEM / SP / 650/2017 file as an extra official investigation, derived from the note published today by the MVT News Agency. We are going to urgently implement precautionary measures aimed at guaranteeing the right to protect the integrity and life of inmates and their families. "

"We are going to require of  the Secretary of Security (of the State of Mexico), the Director of Social Reintegration, the information that is necessary for us to help insure this does not continue to happen in this prison as in the rest of the State."

CRIMINAL NETWORK

Accompanied by at least two people who help monitor, videotape and contain their victims, "El Tato" burns, hits, scratches and even electrocutes his victims, who are forced to ask their family for money to deposit in accounts of Banco Azteca and thus end their personal violence.

Luis Fernando Arias "works" with third parties in other prisons and outside of them to send the videos of the tortures to the relatives and collect the amount of the extortions that, according to 'MVT', range from 1,500 pesos, to automobiles or deeds of estate.

TESTIMONY

One of the victims, who for safety reasons decided to remain anonymous, said: "First we gave them money, more than 70 thousand pesos, when we ran out, one day my son talked to me and told me to deliver the truck that he had left in the house when he was arrested. He insisted, because if he did not, they would kill him, and then me, because they already had our address. 

He gave me an address on a road near Tecámac, and I had to go deliver the vehicle. Four guys came and handed me a phone and said: your son speaks to you, I answered and yes, it was he who told me: give them the keys and papers, and you go back to the house, lest they will also do something to you. " 

AGGRESSIONS

Strikes, kicks, burns and even electric shocks are part of the torture practices that Luis Fernando Arias, alias "El Tato "or "El Tatos "and his criminal group, used to extort from the families of prisoners who are being held in the prisons of El Bordo de Xochiaca, Chiconautla and La Palma

THE GOOD NEWS

TOLUCA, Mexico, October 31, 2017  In the first hours of this Tuesday, October 31, Luis Alberto González Nieto, alias "El Tatos", was transferred to the Maximum Security federal prison number 14, with headquarters in Gómez Palacio, Durango.

​​" El Tatos" headed the band of inmates in jails like Neza Bordo, Chiconautla, in Ecatepec, Chalco and Otumba, where it was proven by videos broadcast by the MVT News Agency, that  they tortured other prisoners to extort money from them and seize them by force and movable and immovable property such as houses, land, vehicles and jewelry.

The Government of the State of Mexico, following a meeting of security strategists through a press release stated that: "In response to a request from the Government of the State of Mexico to the federal authority, around 07:00 hours on Monday, Luis Alberto Gonzalez Nieto was transferred from Chiconautla prison to federal prison number 14, in Gómez Palacio, Durango."

"As part of the intelligence work of the penitentiary system this action was carried out, despite Luis  Gonzalez Nieto being secured in prison, this man can be transferred to another penitentiary center," he added. This is due to a legal provision that allows it in cases where it is necessary to guarantee the governability of the detention center where the detainee is located.

On Tuesday, the Chiconautla prison was operating normally and starting at 10:00 AM, a period of extra visitation will open, as attention to the relatives of the inmates.

Between Saturday 28, Sunday 29 and October 1, nine other prisoners related to the gang of "El Tatos" were also transferred to other prisons, who along with him participated in the acts of torture and extortion of prisoners and their families.

Abuses in Apodaca

In March, of this year, images of abuse of prisoners in the Apodaca Prison, in Nuevo León, were disseminated through social networks. In these images, inmates are humiliated and beaten by other inmates in the Social Rehabilitation Center of Apodaca. In the videos that are exposed, they make it clear how a group of inmates subjects three other semi-naked subjects who wear women's underwear. The group hits and insults them while they are recorded, identifying one of the inmates who is a person living with a disability. According to versions of this leak, it is mentioned that they are members of rival gangs. 

Overcrowding and corruption

Riots, murders, escapes, violence: the crisis that the prisons of Mexico have been experiencing for years is far from being solved by overcrowding, the tentacles of the criminal gangs behind bars and the corruption of the authorities. 

"The crisis is due to two factors," explained Guillermo Zepeda, director of Jurimetría, a research center on legal issues. "On the one hand to overcrowding and on the other to organized crime, which has already permeated the prisons." 

In the last year the prison population was reduced by 30 thousand people, but 58% of the current 216 thousand 831 prisoners live in overcrowded conditions. This means that more than a third of the 375 prisons in the country are overcrowded. 

'Narcofiesta' in Puente Grande:

In social networks a controversial video and several images circulated of a supposed party in Jalisco  inside the State Prison of Puente Grande. In the recording you can see how prisoners and family members drink whiskey while listening to band music at full volume. The large-scale party took place on a Sunday, which is the day of family visitation. The ostentatiousnous coupled with waste and the tranquility and naturalness with which the celebration takes place, caused outrage and controversy in the various media and society of the country. 

CNDH issued warning

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued an alert about the persistence of situations of risk of torture in the country's federal prisons. The organism disqualified the failures in the system of reinsertion and social readaptation of the inmates in the prisons of the Federation. 

Through the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, Renato Sales Heredia, the National Security Commissioner,  argued that there are insufficient educational, training, work and sports activities, as well as situations that affect the right to healthcare. The Social Readaptation Centers, he warned, represents a series of risk factors that affect the social reinsertion of inmates. 

Major Prison Riots
In the last 6 years, prisoners have staged a series of fights inside the jails of Mexico:

1. Cadereyta Criminal October 10, 2017
At least 16 prisoners died and another eight were seriously injured when a confrontation broke out between rival gangs inside the Cadereyta prison in Nuevo León.

2. Penal de Acapulco July 6, 2017
A shot in the maximum security area of ​​the Acapulco prison alerted the prison authorities of a fight. In the end, the confrontation, which took place on July 6, 2017, resulted in 28 deaths and dozens of injuries.

3. Criminal of Ciudad Victoria June 6, 2017
On June 6 of this year, four inmates and three custodians of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, died after a confrontation that occurred during an operation to check the cells.

4. Criminal of Topo Chico, Monterrey February, 1016
On the night of February 10, 2016, a pitched battle broke out inside the Topo Chico prison in Monterrey. According to the authorities, the quarrel between two rival gangs of inmates was triggered by the decision to transfer at least 38 high-risk inmates to other prisons.

5. Criminal La Pila, San Luis Potosí.
On April 27, 2013, two rival groups clashed inside the La Pila prison in San Luis Potosí. The inmates assaulted each other with spell weapons and sticks. In total 13 of them died and some 70 were injured, at least 22 seriously, according to official information.

6. Criminal of Gómez Palacio, Durango
At least 24 dead, including guards and prisoners, was the balance of an attempted escape that occurred on December 18, 2012, in the prison of Gómez Palacio, Durango.

7. Apodaca Prison
Members of the Los Zetas and Gulf cartels clashed brutally at the Apodaca Social Readaptation Center in Nuevo León. A total of 44 people died stabbed or beaten. The confrontation occurred at dawn on Sunday, February 19, 2012.

8. Altamira Criminal Court
At least 31 prisoners died and at least 13 others were injured in a fight within the Sanctions Execution Center of Altamira, Tamaulipas. The confrontation occurred on January 5, 2012.

9. Municipal Social Rehabilitation Center (Cereso)
A total of 17 prisoners were murdered inside the prison, after a shootout between rival gangs known as Los Aztecas and Los Mexicles, armed arms of the La Línea and Sinaloa cartels. July 25, 2011

10. Matamoros Prison
A scuffle at the Executions and Sanctions Center in the city of Matamoros on October 15, 2011, resulted in a total of 20 inmates killed and 12 more injured.

MTV. com http://mvt.com.mx/se-llevan-a-el-tatos-a-prision-de-maxima-seguridad-en-durango/