Global IssuesMEXICO: Torture - Routine and Uninvestigated
While the Mexican government defends the use of the military in its counter-drug offensive, human rights organisations report that the use of torture against local police officers and others arrested in the war on drugs has become routine.
The non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) documented torture reportedly committed against at least 25 police officers and one civilian arrested for alleged ties to organised crime since 2009 in the southeastern state of Tabasco.
The most recent case involved six local policemen in the Tabasco town of Cárdenas, some 700 km southeast of the Mexican capital, who were arrested May 13 and presumably tortured by members of the military to get them to confess to the charge of criminal association.
The torture techniques described by the CMDPDH include plastic bags placed over the detainees' heads until they nearly suffocate, electric shocks to the genitals and other parts of the body, waterboarding, kicks and beatings, and even ear-biting.
'Torture is a systematic, routine practice,' Lucía Chávez, a lawyer with the CMDPDH, told IPS. 'The documented cases follow the same pattern: soldiers and state police show up, make their arrests, and then torture the detainees to make them confess.'
The six local policemen, one of whom had to have his arm and parts of his intestines removed as a result of the injuries received, are still in a state prison.
The CMDPDH asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for protective measures for them.
The Washington-based IACHR, in turn, has requested that the Mexican authorities provide information on the police officers' state of health.
The CMDPDH has so far documented the cases of 73 people arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
In May 2009, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) reported that torture was widely used in Mexico.
A six-member Subcommittee delegation visited Mexico from Aug. 27 to Sept. 12, 2008. The delegation's report was kept confidential by the government, which had six months to respond, until the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI) ordered its publication.
The 88-page report in Spanish called for a clear, practical policy that would send a message against impunity, making it clear that torture and mistreatment will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
The government says it has begun to take steps to meet the recommendations set forth by the Subcommittee, which began its work in February 2007 after the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) went into effect in June 2006.
But the local police officers arrested on May 13 were not the first to complain of torture. A policeman arrested in November, who suffered injuries in custody, is awaiting a court decision on a writ of habeas corpus presented by his attorney.
And 18 other local policemen and a civilian arrested in August 2009 are in a similar situation.
'When they are arrested they have no signs of injuries, which appear afterwards, showing that they have suffered torture,' Chávez said.
Mexico has a federal law against torture in effect since 1986, reformed in 1994; torture is a felony under the criminal code; and the military code of justice stipulates that a confession extracted by means of intimidation or torture is not valid.
Mexico also has a national mechanism for the prevention of torture, which according to the U.N. Subcommittee should be strengthened by means of an appropriate legal framework, human resources, materials and autonomy.
The delegation heard from several sources that the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of mistreatment is a major factor in the continued use of torture, the report adds.
The reform of Mexico's criminal justice system that began to be implemented in 2008 expanded the period of preventive detention for those suspected of involvement in organised crime to 80 days, a measure that has drawn fire from human rights groups at home and abroad.
The Subcommittee warned that this could further foment the practice of torture.
In the militarised fight against drug trafficking launched by conservative President Felipe Calderón since he took office in December 2006, municipal police forces, often accused of collusion with criminal groups, are the weakest link in the national security apparatus.
In May 2009, 25 municipal police from the northern city of Tijuana were captured by the military and tortured, according to activists. They are still being held in a maximum security prison, accused of working for the Tijuana drug cartel. There has been no investigation of the reports that they were tortured.
Since December 2006, more than 22,000 people have died in drug-related violence, according to government figures. On Jun. 11, more than 100 people were killed in different regions of the country -- considered the bloodiest day since Calderón's term began.
In a message published Monday in Mexico's main newspapers, the president justified his military offensive against drug trafficking by arguing that organised crime would have taken control of much of the country otherwise.
Calderón 'has lost the reins of the country, not partially but totally,' journalist and activist Lydia Cacho wrote in the Mexico City daily El Universal. 'Violence has taken on unimaginable proportions. The law and order that people took for granted in some states is now in question in nearly the entire national territory.'
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service