Mexico
19.03.02
Urgent Interventions
Mexico: arbitrary arrests and torture of over 50 persons in the state of Chiapas
Case MEX 190302 / MEX 190302.CC
Arbitrary detention / Torture
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Mexico.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a reliable source that police brutality was exerted during a police operation ordered by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic in the vicinity of the municipal market « José Castillo Tielmans », on March 7th, 2002, in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, State of Chiapas.
According to the information received, the operation was backed by the government, since the municipal police, the Public Security police and the Preventive Federal Police where involved in the incident. The police were allegedly after cases of pirated merchandise (compact discs). The market was reportedly raided without a search warrant by police officers wearing balaclavas. Furthermore, 50 people were arbitrarily detained without judicial orders, and no inventory of the merchandise seized was made. Students in the vicinity of the market who at that time were leaving school, as well as other passers-by, were also arbitrarily arrested.
Among those detained arbitrarily during the operation, and who were then taken to the Penal de Cerro Hueco (maximum security prison in Tuxtla Gutiérrez capital of the state of Chiapas), are the following 27 people: Humberto López Jiménez, Antonio González López, Victor Hugo Jiménez Pérez, Porfirio Velasco Aguilar, Diego Meza López, Felix Santiago, Juán Sánchez López, Hector Bautista Moreno, Manuel Domínguez Gómez, Alfonso López Ramírez, Marciano de la Cruz Gómez, Vicente Hernández Ordoñez, Valentín Porras Guillén, Agustín Gómez Ruíz, Alberto Santiz López, Pedro Gómez López, Carlos Cruz López, Roberto Pérez Pérez, Remigio Calvo Hernández, Antonio A. Girón Ramírez, Manuel López Pérez, Porfirio Santiz Lunes. The following four students were arbitrarily arrested: José Alfredo Girón Luna (aged 18), Javier López Santiz (aged 24), both are students of COBACH (Colegio de Bachilleres de Chiapas –preparatory school), Samuel López Gómez (aged 23), a preparatory student of CECIT (Centro de Ciencias Tecnológicas –preparatory shool) and Manuel Castellanos Gómez (aged 24), a student at the Instituto Tecnológico de Computacion. The reports also state that a 17 year-old child, Miguel Díaz López, who works selling sweets, was also arrested.
According to the report of the Mexican Red Cross, which has headquarters in San Cristobal de las Casas, 15 people, among them several women and 5 minors, needed urgent medical attention for serious wounds, nine of which required surgical sutures. All victims had been severely beaten, and showed lesions that had been made with blunt objects (macanas or toletes) in various parts of the body. Many people fainted when beaten, and a great majority suffered asphyxia while being driven to prison, since they had been laid on top of each other, some with bicycles, or sacs filled with grain over them, and most were under the feet of the police officers that travelled on top. The detainees were not told why they were being held and on what charges. Those that could not speak Spanish were not given a translator when declaring to the police.
The OMCT reminds that Mexico has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and must therefore abide to its principles, and in particular to Article 37 (a) that states that “'No child shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Background
According to the information received, this incident is one among a series of violations that have been taking place in Chiapas for over a year. Previous interventions of security bodies in various municipalities of the state of Chiapas (Ixtapa, Venustiano Carranza), have also displayed police brutality. The International Secretariat of the OMCT had already expressed serious concern for the excessive force exerted during another police operation in Ejidio San José in the municipality of Masqués de Comillas on July 27th, 2001, and on which investigations of violations perpetrated, particularly torture, by the police in the state of Chiapas still continue (see Case MEX 001 / 0102 / OBS 002).
Action Requested
Please write to write to the authorities of Mexico urging them to:
i.- take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of all the people mentioned above, and of all inhabitants of San Cristobal de las Casas, and in particular of the inhabitants of the different municipalities in the State of Chiapas;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
iii. guarantee adequate reparation to the victims of the above mentioned attacks, ensuring their physical and psychological recovery, and their social reintegration;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards ratified by Mexico, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Addresses
· Dr. Vicente Fox Quezada, Presidente de la República Mexicana, México Distrito Federal, Fax: +52-555-277 23 76, Email: radio@presidencia.gob.mx
· General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Procurador General de la República, Av.Reforma, esq. Violeta, Col Guerrero México DF, CP 06300 México / DF México, Fax: +52-555-626 44 26, Email: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
· Dr. José Luis Sobenares Fernández, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Periféco Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lidice, CP 10200 México / Df México, Fax: +52-555-681 71 99.
· Lic. Juan Alarcon Hernández, Presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Guerrero, Av. Juárez, Esq. Galo Soberón y Parra, Centro, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, México, coddehum@prodigy.net.mx
· Emb. Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi, Embajadora Especial de Derechos Humanos y Democracia, Fax: +52-555-327 30 45, Email: macosta@sre.gob.mx
Please also write to the embassies of Mexico in your respective country.
Geneva, March 19th, 2002
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
Arbitrary detention / Torture
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Mexico.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a reliable source that police brutality was exerted during a police operation ordered by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic in the vicinity of the municipal market « José Castillo Tielmans », on March 7th, 2002, in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, State of Chiapas.
According to the information received, the operation was backed by the government, since the municipal police, the Public Security police and the Preventive Federal Police where involved in the incident. The police were allegedly after cases of pirated merchandise (compact discs). The market was reportedly raided without a search warrant by police officers wearing balaclavas. Furthermore, 50 people were arbitrarily detained without judicial orders, and no inventory of the merchandise seized was made. Students in the vicinity of the market who at that time were leaving school, as well as other passers-by, were also arbitrarily arrested.
Among those detained arbitrarily during the operation, and who were then taken to the Penal de Cerro Hueco (maximum security prison in Tuxtla Gutiérrez capital of the state of Chiapas), are the following 27 people: Humberto López Jiménez, Antonio González López, Victor Hugo Jiménez Pérez, Porfirio Velasco Aguilar, Diego Meza López, Felix Santiago, Juán Sánchez López, Hector Bautista Moreno, Manuel Domínguez Gómez, Alfonso López Ramírez, Marciano de la Cruz Gómez, Vicente Hernández Ordoñez, Valentín Porras Guillén, Agustín Gómez Ruíz, Alberto Santiz López, Pedro Gómez López, Carlos Cruz López, Roberto Pérez Pérez, Remigio Calvo Hernández, Antonio A. Girón Ramírez, Manuel López Pérez, Porfirio Santiz Lunes. The following four students were arbitrarily arrested: José Alfredo Girón Luna (aged 18), Javier López Santiz (aged 24), both are students of COBACH (Colegio de Bachilleres de Chiapas –preparatory school), Samuel López Gómez (aged 23), a preparatory student of CECIT (Centro de Ciencias Tecnológicas –preparatory shool) and Manuel Castellanos Gómez (aged 24), a student at the Instituto Tecnológico de Computacion. The reports also state that a 17 year-old child, Miguel Díaz López, who works selling sweets, was also arrested.
According to the report of the Mexican Red Cross, which has headquarters in San Cristobal de las Casas, 15 people, among them several women and 5 minors, needed urgent medical attention for serious wounds, nine of which required surgical sutures. All victims had been severely beaten, and showed lesions that had been made with blunt objects (macanas or toletes) in various parts of the body. Many people fainted when beaten, and a great majority suffered asphyxia while being driven to prison, since they had been laid on top of each other, some with bicycles, or sacs filled with grain over them, and most were under the feet of the police officers that travelled on top. The detainees were not told why they were being held and on what charges. Those that could not speak Spanish were not given a translator when declaring to the police.
The OMCT reminds that Mexico has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and must therefore abide to its principles, and in particular to Article 37 (a) that states that “'No child shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Background
According to the information received, this incident is one among a series of violations that have been taking place in Chiapas for over a year. Previous interventions of security bodies in various municipalities of the state of Chiapas (Ixtapa, Venustiano Carranza), have also displayed police brutality. The International Secretariat of the OMCT had already expressed serious concern for the excessive force exerted during another police operation in Ejidio San José in the municipality of Masqués de Comillas on July 27th, 2001, and on which investigations of violations perpetrated, particularly torture, by the police in the state of Chiapas still continue (see Case MEX 001 / 0102 / OBS 002).
Action Requested
Please write to write to the authorities of Mexico urging them to:
i.- take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of all the people mentioned above, and of all inhabitants of San Cristobal de las Casas, and in particular of the inhabitants of the different municipalities in the State of Chiapas;
ii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
iii. guarantee adequate reparation to the victims of the above mentioned attacks, ensuring their physical and psychological recovery, and their social reintegration;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards ratified by Mexico, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Addresses
· Dr. Vicente Fox Quezada, Presidente de la República Mexicana, México Distrito Federal, Fax: +52-555-277 23 76, Email: radio@presidencia.gob.mx
· General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Procurador General de la República, Av.Reforma, esq. Violeta, Col Guerrero México DF, CP 06300 México / DF México, Fax: +52-555-626 44 26, Email: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
· Dr. José Luis Sobenares Fernández, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Periféco Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lidice, CP 10200 México / Df México, Fax: +52-555-681 71 99.
· Lic. Juan Alarcon Hernández, Presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Guerrero, Av. Juárez, Esq. Galo Soberón y Parra, Centro, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, México, coddehum@prodigy.net.mx
· Emb. Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi, Embajadora Especial de Derechos Humanos y Democracia, Fax: +52-555-327 30 45, Email: macosta@sre.gob.mx
Please also write to the embassies of Mexico in your respective country.
Geneva, March 19th, 2002
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.