E/CN.4/1993/26 page 12 II. INFORMATION REVIEWED BY THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR WITH RESPECT TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES Argentina Information transmitted to the Government and replies received thereon 31. In a letter dated 21 August 1992 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information on the practice of torture in Argentina and also on a number of individual cases. The Government replied in a letter dated 9 November 1992. 32. The Special Rapporteur stated that he had received information on major legislative action taken in recent years such as the reform of the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure under which confessions made to the police are not admissible as evidence and police detention to establish identity may not exceed 10 days. He had however, been informed that notwithstanding these measures the police frequently resorted to torture to elicit information or secure changes in testimony already given. Torture was also used as a form of punishment and intimidation. Most of the victims were poor people and young people suspected of theft, rape and similar offences. Some cases had however, a political dimension. According to the information received, the police had used torture to link a group of dissidents to the commission of a crime. 33. The most frequently used methods are electric shocks, beating and near-suffocation by means of a plastic bag placed over the head. ("Dry submarine"). 34. It was reported that the Government was not taking effective action to prevent torture, although in a number of cases heavy pressure had resulted in disciplinary action against individual policemen. The judiciary, the examining magistrates in particular, rarely charged police with torture. Usually the less serious charge of unlawful pressure was preferred. Even in that case convictions were virtually unknown. 35. The Special Rapporteur had also been informed of seven cases in Buenos Aires city and province. In this connection the Government stated in its reply that it was essential that the Special Rapporteur should identify the unit concerned in an alleged unlawful act and the jurisdiction which had received the complaints as well as the facts needed to establish the details of each case. The Government annexed a list of regulations in force germane to prevention of the use of torture. The cases mentioned are the following: (a) María Eugenia Corvalán Alarcón, cashier in a restaurant in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, was arrested on 4 June 1987 by police searching the restaurant for drugs. She was taken to the police station where she was beaten in the presence of witnesses, subjected to the dry submarine treatment and put in a straitjacket. Various members of the police were charged with the use of unlawful pressure. The Special Rapporteur does not know whether a judical decision has been taken;