E/CN.4/1994/31 page 40 Information transmitted to the Government 173. By letter dated 26 August 1993 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information on 17 cases of torture reported to have occurred in the country. These cases are described in the following paragraphs. 174. Wilson Méndez was arrested by members of the army on 26 October 1992 in the city of Doncello, department of Caquetá, on suspicion of belonging to the opposition group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). He was taken to the Florencia Battalion where he was reportedly shot in the legs and had to be transferred to María Inmaculada hospital where he underwent surgery. According to witnesses, while he was in hospital the soldiers guarding him struck him with their weapons, inflicting fresh injuries to his legs. The medical personnel who attempted to intervene reportedly received death threats. 175. Luis Fernando Martínez and his wife Sonebia Pinzón Herrera had their house in Sabaneta, department of Santander, broken into during the night of 7 November 1992 by a group of five soldiers from Mobile Brigade No. 2. Luis Fernando Martínez was taken to prison and his wife, Sonebia Pinzón, and her two-year-old daughter, Marcela Becerra Pinzón, were reportedly raped by the soldiers. Subsequent medical examinations were said to have confirmed these reports. According to the information received, four soldiers from Anti-Guerrilla Battalion No. 18 ("Cimarrones"), connected with Mobile Brigade No. 2, were detained on accusations of child abuse, rape and conspiracy to break the law. 176. Heberto Sánchez Tamayo, Diego Miguel Hernández and Astrid Liliana Rodríguez were part of a group of 18 persons travelling on a river boat from Tres Esquinas to Cartagena del Chairá in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, department of Caquetá, on 20 March 1993. The boat was reportedly intercepted outside Puerto La Reforma by members of the army’s Mobile Brigade No. 1, who forced some of the passengers, including the above-mentioned persons, to strip off their clothes and disembark. These persons were then interrogated on guerrilla activities in the area and tortured, in particular by suffocation in the mud of the river. Heberto Sánchez and Diego Hernández had their arms and knees twisted and were hung upside down. Astrid Rodríguez was beaten on the feet with a hammer, had soap stuffed in her mouth and her breasts crushed. They were then transferred to Battalion No. 36 ("Montaña Cazadores") at San Vicente del Caguán where Astrid Rodríguez was subjected to further maltreatment. 177. Gilberto Jurado Alvarán, and Henri Cardona, were arrested on 3 August 1993 on the road from Fortul to Arauquita, department of Arauca, by members of the Reveiz Pizarro de Saravena Battalion of the Mechanized Cavalry. They were taken to Simon Bolívar School of Vereda "La Salve" where, they were reportedly beaten severely. Mr. Jurado was reportedly also subjected to drowning attempts in a nearby lake. Before being released four days later, they were forced to sign a declaration stating that they had been well treated.