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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2005 
Mexican Human Rights Commission Investigating 12 Torture Complaints so far in 2005
 Associated Press
Mexico City – Some police forces in Mexico still use torture to extract confessions and information from suspects, but have developed new, more sophisticated ways of doing so that are harder to detect, the country's National Human Rights Commission said this week.
Commission president Jose Luis Soberanes said that officials have received 12 reports of the use of torture so far this year, compared to 21 in 2004, seven in 2003 and nine the year before that.
Those numbers represent a significant drop from a bit more than a decade ago, however. In 1990, for instance, officials received 227 torture complaints, while documenting 576 a year later and 492 in 1992.
Soberanes said officials had not confirmed any concrete instance of torture this year, but that all dozen cases were still being investigated by the commission.
"The CNDH remains emphatic that torture has not disappeared in our country," Soberanes said, referring to the commission by its Spanish initials. "It continues to be a grave affront to legality and the human rights."
Soberanes said most of the reported tortures involved people wrongfully imprisoned by unidentified members of police or government security forces.
"Torture has become more sophisticated," he said, "and for that reason, it's more difficult to detect."
Soberanes said alleged victims have complained of being beaten, kicked or hit over the head or in the genitals with objects including wooden paddles.
Other cases have involved near-asphyxiation using plastic bags pulled over a victim's head or the pouring of water or gasoline into victims' mouths, noses or ears. The use of electric shocks, cigarette burns and sexual violence have also ben reported, Soberanes said.
Complaints of physiological torture, including death threats, have also been documented, he said, though they were not as common.
"Lately, it has occurred more frequently than physiological torture," Soberanes said of physical acts of torture.
A series of recommendations produced by the commission urges authorities to take steps to limit arbitrary arrests. They also call for interrogation sessions and other interactions between suspects and authorities be tapped or conducted in front of witnesses to discourage acts of violence.posed a "Bolivarian Alternative" trade pact, said Wednesday that Fox left the summit "bleeding from his injuries." |
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