E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.2 page 7 earlier operations in the Loxicha region. The following persons were arrested and tortured: Genaro López Ruiz, Prisciliano Enríquez Luna, Virgilio Cruz Luna, Roberto Antonio Juárez and Gaudencio García Martínez. 20. According to the reports received by the Special Rapporteur, the incidents had the following features in common. There is no record of any judicial warrant being presented at the time of the arrests, while in many cases excessive and unnecessary violence was used; there were house searches, violent evictions, theft and threats, creating a climate of fear among the population. In nearly all cases, there were constant threats of ill-treatment, in some cases death threats, and simulated executions (by shooting or by dropping from an aircraft). Widespread use was made of physical torture on detainees, including beatings, electric shocks and deprivation of food. Many acts of torture were carried out in order to obtain a self-incriminating statement of EPR membership and to incriminate other persons and neighbours. In several cases those arrested were forced to sign blank pages or pre-written statements, even when they could not read or write. There is no report that monolingual Zapotec detainees had access to an interpreter or person of confidence during proceedings. 21. The Special Rapporteur also received information that members of many non-governmental human rights organizations in different states were being subjected to harassment by unidentified individuals, in the form of telephone calls threatening them and their families, anonymous threatening letters, office searches, slander campaigns in the media, etc. Owing to the anonymous nature of this type of harassment, it is difficult for the organizations to identify those responsible but on numerous occasions they strongly suspect the involvement of the authorities. In his reports for 1996 and 1997, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said that he had received information on harassment, death threats and intimidation against human rights defenders, leaders of indigenous organizations and members of political parties, particularly the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and religious communities, and had sent a series of urgent appeals to the Government asking it to take the necessary measures to protect the right to life and physical integrity of several of the above. In the course of his visit the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture received evidence from victims of this type of harassment, some cases of which had involved torture or ill-treatment. Information furnished by the authorities 22. There was unanimity among the authorities interviewed by the Special Rapporteur in the Federal District in stating that in recent years cases of torture had declined in Mexico, largely as the result of the new legislation introduced precisely to eradicate the practice. The Minister of the Interior said that significant progress had been made in recent years as a result of the Federal Act for the Prevention and Punishment of Torture and the establishment of the human rights commissions. Although torture was not a generalized practice, there were isolated cases which should not go unpunished, and for this reason the Government was trying to introduce programmes for improving the human rights culture in Mexico, not only for the general public but also for the police forces. Other executive authorities such as the Attorney-General of the Republic (PGR) expressed a similar view,