E/CN.4/1994/31 page 81 Mexico Information transmitted to the Government and replies received 381. By letter dated 26 August 1993 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received reports according to which torture and ill-treatment continued to be practised by the judicial police during the initial stages of a criminal investigation as a means of extracting confessions from detainees. Moreover, these confessions continued to be accepted as evidence by the majority of courts. The most commonly used methods were beatings, introduction of carbonated water into the nose, suffocation by placing a plastic bag over the head or immersing the head in water, electric shocks and death threats. 382. According to the information received, the practice of torture and ill-treatment was facilitated by the fact that the perpetrators were rarely prosecuted. Even in cases where a recommendation had been issued by the National Human Rights Commission, the recommendation had been ignored and the persons responsible had gone unpunished. Cases of indemnification of victims were rare, even where the authorities had recognized the existence of torture. 383. The Special Rapporteur was also informed of the existence of a draft text to revise various articles of the Constitution, which called, inter alia, for an increase in the period of preventive detention from the 24-hour limit currently in force to 72 hours. According to the sources, this reform would represent a setback in the protection of the rights of detainees and would facilitate the practice of torture and ill-treatment. The individual cases referred to in the following paragraphs were communicated to the Government. 384 Rubén Medina Rubio was arrested on 23 November 1989 in the town of Jalapa and taken to the premises of the judicial police of the Federal District located in Médico Militar street, Mexico City. It was reported that both at the time of his arrest and during his transfer he was severely beaten for refusing to confess his involvement in a kidnapping and homicide case. Also arrested was Angel Chávez Sánchez who, under torture - as corroborated by medical certificates and photographs - reportedly implicated Mr. Medina in the crimes with which he had been charged. Mr. Chávez was reported to have retracted his statement before the Eighth Criminal Court of the Federal District. According to the information received, Mr. Chávez’s original statement constitutes the only evidence on the basis of which Mr. Medina was sentenced to 37 years in prison. 385. Manuel Manríquez San Agustín, a member of the Otomí indigenous community of Ranchería Piedra Blanca, Tutotepec, state of Hidalgo, was arrested without a warrant by members of the judicial police of the Federal District on 2 June 1990 in Mexico City. During the four days in which he was kept incommunicado he was reported to have been severely beaten and subjected to suffocation and electric shocks. Finally, he was forced to sign a confession in Spanish, despite the fact that he did not understand the language.