E/CN.4/2000/9 page 146 still in effect against some of them, including Rosa Hernández, President of the Union of Women, Juan Bautista Hernández, Nicolás Flores Hernández and Nicolás Martínes, who had been freed on bail. 740. Esperanza Parra Batiz, Guadalupe Hernández, Rubén Barrios Méndez, Heraclio Blanco Sánchez, Víctor Alejandro Navarro de Lira, aged one year and five months, and twenty others, including women and children, are reported to have been removed by force from the offices of the Ministry of Education and Culture (SEC) by a group of approximately 60 heavily armed ministry police in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, on 18 December 1998. It is alleged that even though the evacuation was peaceful as far as the demonstrators were concerned, when they asked for permission to collect belongings that had been left behind, the police proceeded to abuse, assault and beat them, mainly on the abdomen and back, with the result that Esperanza Parra Batiz, Guadalupe Hernández, Rubén Barrios Méndez, Heraclio Blanco Sánchez and Víctor Alejandro Navarro de Lira were injured. 741. Juan Chivarras de la Cruz, Miguel Hernández de la Cruz and Isidoro López Díaz were allegedly tortured by members of the Mexican Army on 20 December 1998. Following the discovery of the dead body of Phillip True, a United States journalist, who had been strangled, members of the Mexican Army are said to have tortured Isidoro López Díaz in the community of San Sebastián, Teponahuaxitlan, in order to discover the whereabouts of Juan Chivarras de la Cruz and Miguel Hernández de la Cruz. Afterwards, they reportedly arrested the two latter and extracted statements from them under torture. Both apparently confessed to having strangled Phillip True, although the results of a second autopsy, carried out by a United States forensic expert, are said to have shown that True did not die of strangulation but as a result of being beaten. 742. By letter dated 15 December 1999, the Special Rapporteur received information from the Government concerning the case of Juan Chivarras de la Cruz, Miguel Hernández de la Cruz and Isidoro López Díaz. According to this information, the Human Rights Commission of Jalisco State had sent the CNDH a dossier establishing that between 15 and 17 December 1998 units of the armed forces arrived at the village of Almoltita to investigate the death of the United States journalist Phillip True and track down the suspects, Juan Chivarras de la Cruz and Miguel Hernández de la Cruz, who were arrested on 24 December 1998 and turned over to the Government Procurator of Jalisco State. CNDH inspectors came to San Sebastián Teponahuaxtlán to gather information and obtain the relevant reports from the authorities. A dossier is being compiled within the context of the prosecution of Juan Chivarras de la Cruz and Miguel Hernández de la Cruz for aggravated homicide and aggravated assault in the case of the murder victim Phillip True. 743. Arturo Ríos Morales is reported to have been arrested on 23 September 1998 by four members of the State judicial police on Avenida de Cuauthómoc in the city of Acapulco, Guerrero. He is said to have been taken with a hood over his head, handcuffed and legs bound to the office of the judicial police commander where he remained for three or four hours. After being untied, he was allegedly taken to a van and left lying on the seat for some four hours. Three or four other people then entered the vehicle and three of them got on top of the body of Arturo Ríos Morales, poured water through his nose and stuffed a rag in his mouth, over a period of approximately two hours, to make him confess to abductions and murders that had taken place in the village of El Quemado. The next day he was reportedly driven to El Quemado and taken on foot along the road