Translated by Leila English
Enrique Peña Nieto's second government report, based on records from Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), boasted of a supposed decrease in abuses committed by federal security forces. Amnesty International has called into doubt, however, that the reports from CNDH, headed by Raúl Plascencia, accurately reflect the reality in Mexico.
In presenting the report “Out of Control: Torture and Other Abuses in Mexico,” Rupert Knox, special investigator from Amnesty International (AI), judged CNDH as
“not acting in favor of the victims,” and that in cases of torture “it is part of the problem and not the solution.”The document analyzes the phenomenon of torture in Mexico over a 10-year period, during which the CNDH registered 7,164 complaints. Of those, 275 were documented in 2003 and 1,505 last year, which represents a 600% increase in complaints registered.
Of all of the complaints, only 44 have produced recommendations from the CNDH, while the Federal Judiciary Council reported that the Attorney General’s Office processed 1,219 declarations of torture, opened 123 preliminary investigations, and presented 12 before a judge, of which seven resulted in covictions.
Despite the CNDH being responsible for pointing out the reduction in complaints, Rupert Knox noted that from 2003 until present, the organization has applied the Istanbul Protocol 475 times, in performing physical and psychological analyses to test for the effects of torture, and found 57 positive results.
He also said that, since the sentence from Mexico’s Supreme Court in the case of Israel Arzate Meléndez--the youth who was tortured and arraigned as responsible for the killing of adolescents in Villas de Sálvarcar, in Juárez, Chihuahua--, during recent months district courts that have had knowledge of torture have sent 600 cases to the Public Ministery.
“What we see in the second government report is that the CNDH has received fewer complaints during this administration, which would be an important indicator if it reflected the reality. Although we do not have different data to corroborate, we do have serious doubts about the manner in which the CNDH manages this data and the conclusions they draw,” noted Knox, who is a specialist in abuses committed in Mexico.The investigator recounted that, on Wednesday, September 3, members of AI met with Jesús Murillo Karam, Mexico’s Attorney General; Mariana Benítez, Deputy Attorney General; Lía Limón, Undersecretary of Government Relations; Víctor Manuel Serrato, Undersecretary for Human Rights of the Secretariat of Government Relations; and Eliana García, Deputy Attorney General for Human Rights.
“They strongly reprimanded us because we do not recognize their advances, and that there are only four cases over these years [two years of the Peña Nieto administration]
that result from the recommendations issued by the CNDH,” said Knox.
He described the position of civil servants in denying the persistence of torture committed by members of security forces as “disappointing.”
Amaya described the tortures he suffered at the hands of federal police, and Claudia told of sexual violence by Marines that she suffered in August 2012.
After indicating that they had not been able to surmount the psychological damages caused by those tortures, nor been able to reintegrate into society, as both were presented in communications media as delinquents, they demanded that, in the same way that they were once exhibited as criminals, they now be presented to society as innocents by the Attorney General’s Office. Spanish original
For statements by the three torture victims, see: Mexico Victims of Torture Testify Police Manufacture Evidence and Culprits
“If they do not recognize that we do indeed have a truly persistent and widespread problem, if they speak, as the Undersecretary of Government Relations did, of only four cases from the CNDH and that they don't have further responsibility… it makes it easy for the government, and all is lost, because the CNDH does not establish adequate mechanisms to first receive and quantify complaints and to then investigate them with due process,” he added in an interview.During his comments, the investigator highlighted that despite how Plascencia Villanueva’s organization has produced some very important recommendations,
“the problem, from the perspective of AI, is that the CNDH is working for itself, not for the victims of human rights violations.”Amnesty International also recalled that victims of serious abuses have resorted to amparos [court appeals] to contest resolutions from the CNDH. Moreover, they critized that the organization does not make transparent its investigations nor the criteria by which a complaint qualifies for a recommendation.
“If we make a deeper analysis, the CNDH is part of the problem, not of a current solution, and it requires a radical strengthening in order to act in favor of human rights victims. Currently the government hides behind the lack of recommendations from the CNDH, and its inadequate compliance with those recommendations that the CNDH accepts as sufficient.”Present at the press conference were Yuly Alexandra Baltasar, wife of Honduran Ángel Amílcar Colón Quevedo, detained in Nayarit on accusations of crimes against health; Rogelio Amaya Martínez, detained in August 2010 as responsible for the explosion of a car bomb in Juárez; and Claudia Medina, accused of arms and drug trafficking in Veracruz.
Amaya described the tortures he suffered at the hands of federal police, and Claudia told of sexual violence by Marines that she suffered in August 2012.
After indicating that they had not been able to surmount the psychological damages caused by those tortures, nor been able to reintegrate into society, as both were presented in communications media as delinquents, they demanded that, in the same way that they were once exhibited as criminals, they now be presented to society as innocents by the Attorney General’s Office. Spanish original
For statements by the three torture victims, see: Mexico Victims of Torture Testify Police Manufacture Evidence and Culprits