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 Editorials | At Issue | October 2005 
Mexican Brothers Live Torture, Court Nightmare
 Lorraine Orlandi - Reuters
Psychology professor Enrique Aranda had never crossed paths with Mexico's police and courts until an evening out with his brother nine years ago gave him a taste of hell.
Aranda and his brother Adrian, an accountant, were arrested after leaving a Mexico City diner and taken to a city police barracks where they were punched in the stomach and beaten on their backs with nightsticks.
Plastic bags were held over their heads as they began suffocating – again and again. In an ordeal documented by local and international rights watchdogs, they were slapped, kicked, ordered to sign papers thrust at them or face "things worse than death."
They heard the names and addresses of their parents and sister and the horrors they would suffer.
"They pushed me against a wall. They pressed something cold to me that felt like a pistol barrel, at my temple, at the nape of my neck," Aranda said at his Mexico City jail, where he is serving 42 years for a kidnapping he says he did not commit.
"You feel panic, terror, helplessness, at times anger, but more than anything it's the fear," he said. "Terror they'll rape you, rape you with glass bottles, and your family, too."
The torture went on for two days. Then the brothers and their signed confessions were taken before a judge.
Aranda, now 47, and his brother, 38, were convicted of kidnapping the daughter of Dionisio Perez Jacome, a leader of the PRI party that ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000, and other crimes in a case cited by Amnesty International as a textbook study of corruption in Mexican justice.
Aranda says they were targeted for his anti-government discourses as a teacher at the Iberoamerican University and head of a national professional group. Their 1996 arrests came as Perez Jacome rose to communications chief for Mexico's president, seven months after his daughter's kidnapping.
The first trial judge told the brothers not to pay for a lawyer because "I have orders to screw you," Aranda said.
Prosecutors and court officials declined Reuters' requests for comment. Perez Jacome insists the brothers are guilty. His daughter was recovered after he paid a ransom.
Fatal Flaws
Rights leaders say police, prosecutors and courts still serve entrenched political interests despite democratic gains since President Vicente Fox ousted the PRI in 2000 elections.
"In spite of what has happened in these years in terms of human rights, through this case we see that the justice system has not changed," said Fabienne Cabaret of Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture, or ACAT, in Mexico.
In a system where trials are held mainly on paper and behind closed doors, the brothers' prosecution was rife with legal aberrations. Their confessions were the key evidence.
The New York Lawyers Committee for Human Rights found "fatal flaws" in the state's case. Recordings of ransom calls and a surveillance tape of the kidnapping disappeared. Alibi testimony was disregarded.
A higher court ordered a new trial, but at the 11th hour the second trial judge was replaced and the conviction upheld in January. The brothers lost their latest appeal in May.
Their torture claims reflect abuse that rights groups say runs rampant as ill-equipped, poorly trained police and prosecutors face rising pressure to solve crimes. Their arrest without a court order represents the rule, not the exception.
Defense lawyer Felipe Canseco sees their jailing as a final act of repression by the PRI regime. But Perez Jacome, now a member of Veracruz state government, scoffs at the suggestion.
"That's completely absurd; they are criminals," he told Reuters. "I was just a victim."
For Amnesty International, the case represents unresolved rights abuse that Fox should redress by punishing torturers, compensating victims and reforming justice.
The odds are stacked against the brothers, however, and Fox's proposals to professionalize police, depoliticize prosecutors and open court hearings to public scrutiny have stalled in Congress ahead of next year's presidential race.
Hell And Heaven
Aranda looks fit in prison beige, his beard neat. He trembles slightly but speaks calmly about his losses.
His girlfriend left the country with their 6-year-old daughter, conceived in prison. He lost two teeth and some of his hearing to the beatings. A promising teaching career is gone. His parents' home was sold to pay legal bills.
Yet, he is philosophical. Ever the academic, he sees in his life parallels with ancient mythology, where the descent into hell yields enlightenment.
"I am definitely a better person now than when I came here. Outside, I was scattered ... maybe not self-critical enough. Here, I have plenty of opportunity for self-examination."
In July, Mexico City prosecutors gave the brothers a ray of hope by reopening a probe into their torture complaint. It is among 50 cases being reviewed under international rights treaties. A torture finding could overturn the conviction.
But Mexican authorities virtually never acknowledge torture. Prosecutors went as far as getting a warrant for one of the brothers' inquisitors, on charges of abuse of authority. He was never arrested and is now a Veracruz state policeman.
Aranda takes solace in writing and reflection, winning six national prizes for fiction and poetry he penned behind bars. He teaches other inmates and founded a prison library.
"Surrounded by four walls, you can only reach for the limitless heavens," Aranda said. "Paradoxically, I am grateful for the experience. But it's time it ends." |
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