CAT/C/75
page 21
76.
According to information provided to the Committee members by the Office of the
Tamaulipas State Attorney-General, 21 of the Commission’s 135 recommendations to the Office
in 1999, 2000 and the first few months of 2001 concerned beatings, bodily injury and torture.
7.
Office of the Baja California State Procurator for
Human Rights and Civic Protection
77.
The Procurator informed the Committee members that his Office had received four
complaints of torture during 2000, in one of which it was established that the authorities were
not responsible. Between 1 January and 30 June 2001, however, his Office had
received 12 complaints, most of which were still being investigated. The incidents had taken
place in Tijuana in seven of the cases and in Mexicali in five. Members of the State judicial
police were alleged to be responsible in all cases but one, which was attributed to the Federal
judicial police.
78.
One of the complaints concerned Isidro Carrillo Vega, who died in Tijuana
on 24 May 2001, apparently as a result of torture by members of the judicial police who had
detained him on suspicion of committing a bank robbery. An autopsy by the Forensic Medicine
Service showed the cause of death to be a rupturing of the bowel and fractures resulting from
severe blows to the abdominal region and rib cage. Four other people detained in connection
with the same incident stated that they had been tortured and bore physical injuries.20
79.
On 9 June 2001 the Office issued a statement addressed to the State Congress, the
High Court, the Governor and the Attorney-General, expressing its concern at the practice of
torture in the State: “Despite the State authorities’ official declarations that violence has been
banished from the conduct of government affairs, detainees in the cells and isolation wings of the
State judicial police, which is a department of the Office of the Baja California State
Attorney-General, are being tortured to confess to the offences they have been charged with or to
incriminate third parties in offences of various kinds.”
C. Information from non-governmental organizations
80.
The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interviewed by Committee members
provided written information on cases of torture, among other things. One national organization
provided details of incidents in 26 States between September 1998 and June 2001, 73 of which
had been taken from press reports and concerned a total of 177 presumed victims. A
further 26 had been reported directly to NGOs; there were a total of 40 alleged victims.
State-level NGOs also provided the Committee with information on individual cases they had
dealt with. The following are some of the most recent and representative cases; they differ from
those reported in the preceding sections. The names of alleged victims and other details
concerning their detention can be found in the documentation received by the Committee
members.
Coahuila
81.
Two people detained on 10 February 2001 in Torreón by judicial police: beatings, plastic
bags over the head, electric shocks and threats used to force them to sign a document they were
not allowed to read. The case was submitted to the State Human Rights Commission.
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