New detention, torture and fabrication of evidence in Oaxaca

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (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 the Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights (Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – LIMEDDH), a member of the OMCT network, about the violent and arbitrary detention of seven persons during a demonstration march in Oaxaca urging for the release of political prisonners detained in the prison of Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz. Five of these persons were released some days later, after paying a deposit of about 5 to 10 thousand Mexican pesos.

According to the information received, on 13 January 2007 in Oaxaca, many relatives of the detained persons called to a peaceful march at 10am, departing from the centre of Miahuatlán, to the prison of CERESO. They were urging for the immediate and unconditional release of all the prisoners detained since 25 November 2006, as well as the dismissal of the Governor of the State, Ulysses Ruiz Ortiz. The demonstration began without any important problems. Nevertheless, at the end of the march, during the meeting of the relatives, the latter were harassed by a man that was filming them and then tried to attack them with his knife.

According to the information received, the march finished around 5:40pm. While the relatives were doing a sitting and preparing to eat, about 50 elements of the Special Operations Police Unit (UPOE), from the preventive police and local police, violently broke up the sitting which was taking place around the detention centre of Porfirio Díaz of Miahuatlán. Many of the policemen had the face covered with balaclavas and they were all armed with weapons type Cuerno de Chivo, AK 47. They got out from the cars shouting to the relatives in the sitting "¡Orale! ¡Orale, hijos de la chingada! ¡Ya les vamos a dar en la madre!"(a vulgar expression). Because of the violent eviction, the relatives had to evacuate urgently, leaving on the premises their belongings: credit cards, bulletins of press, cell phones etc.

According to the information received, at the same time, between 4:30pm and 5pm, 7 persons were arrested. They were coming back from the march to the city of Oaxaca aboard small trucks, and were accompanied by women and children who were threatened with imprisonment if they interposed to the detention. Some of the persons under arrest were presented before the Office of the Attorney (Procuraduria General de la Republica - PGR) and other before the Oaxaca State Public Department (Ministerio Publico del estado de Oaxaca): Rogelio Garcia Hernández (18-year-old), Vladimir Gonzáles Martins (17 year old), José of Jesus Villaseca Pérez (19 year old), student of the UNAM, Miguel López Cross (28-year-old), José Ponciano Neri (age unknown), Arnulfo Ezequiel Vázquez (age unknown) and Humberto Vázquez (age unknown). According to the accusations, offences of illegal carrying of weapons and of use of army’s exclusive weapons were invented against those arrested.

According to the same information, deposits from 5 to 10 thousand pesos were subsequently paid (between 457 and 913 US dollars, approximately), for the release of five of them, whose names have not yet been specified. Persons under arrest have declared that they were subjected to ill-treatment and threats like: "We are going to rape you". One of them, student Vladimir González Martínez denounced that, after being arrested, threatened and hit, he was taken to the PGR by police officers: “they told us 'we are going to bury you. We are going to rape you or to throw you in the sea". According to the accusations, all the persons under arrest were beaten, threatened with sexual violence and death. They were told that they would have to dig the tombs where their detained friends would be buried. On top of that, some of them were obliged by means of blows and threats to carry weapons put by force in their hands by the police officers, in order to photograph them with those weapons and to accuse them of illegal carrying of weapons of police’s exclusive use.

Information received emphasize that previously, on 4 January 2007, relatives who organised a sitting for the persons under arrest since 25 November 2006, in Miahuatlán, were also harassed. On that occasion, they were notified through the prison director Juan Carreño and the prison custodian chief, Raúl Ramírez, that the prisoners had a message for them: "(…) they were hardly threatened by the others inmates because of the sitting and the organization of marches outside the prison (…)".

According to the information, later the same day, the relatives participating in the sitting received a phone call to inform them (…) that they had to stop the sitting because two detained men were threatened of death, and they had until 10 am of the 5th January to do so, if they did not want the prisoners to suffer the consequences (…). During the night between 4 and 5 January 2007, the custodians did not close with padlock the two cells of the Oaxaca events’ prisoners: it increased their fear to be attacked during the night.

OMCT recalls that on 25 November 2006, in the context of the demonstration against the Governor of Oaxaca, Mr. Ulysses Ruíz, many people were arrested in Oaxaca. These people have not yet been released, and they are detained without any valid charges. Moreover, they have not been presented before a competent, independent, fair and impartial court. In addition, relatives and friends of many of the arrested people have been victims of diverse forms of harassment. On 17 December 2006, some people were released, but the legal, psychological, and physical situation of the remaining people who are still under arrest is not clear and continues therefore being very worrying.

OMCT also recalls that Mexico, as a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, must ensure that:

a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action. (Article 37)

The International Secretariat of OMCT is very concerned about the threats and harassment perpetrated against relatives of those detained during the events on 25 November 2006, and about the detention of persons who participate or have participated in demonstrations in favour of their release. These acts are, according to the accusations, carried out by the State authorities under the federal authorities’ indifference. OMCT urges the Mexican Government to take necessary measures to guarantee the security and the psychological and physical integrity of the demonstrators who support the persons under arrest in the facts denounced.

Requested Action

Please write to the authorities in Mexico urging them to:

1. Take urgently necessary measures to guarantee the security and the physical and psychological integrity of all detained and injured persons during the events related above, including urgent, appropriate and free medical care, for all persons who need it;
2. Order the immediate release of all persons who are still detained following the events denounced before, and during the events of the 25th November 2006, in the absence of valid legal charges that are consistent with international law and standards, or, if such charges exist, bring them before an impartial and competent tribunal and guarantee their procedural rights at all times;
3. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into these events, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to trial and apply to them the civil, penal and/or administrative sanctions provided by law;
4. Guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental freedom in all the country, in conformity with international human rights rules, particularly the Convention against Torture.

Addresses

• Mexican Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in Geneva: 16, Avenue du Budé. 1202, Ginebra, Case postale 433. Fax: +4122.748.07.08. E-mail: mission.mexico@ties.itu.int
• Mr. President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Residencia Oficial de "Los Pinos", Co. San Miguel Chapultepec, México D.F., C.P. 11850 México, Fax: +52.5.55.522.94.13 / +52 5 55 277 23 76. E-mail: radio@appresidencia.gob.mx; webadmon@appresidencia.gob.mx
• Mr. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, General Attorney, Reforma Norte esquina Violeta 75. Colonia Guerrero, CP. 06300, México D.F., TEL: +52.5.55.346.20.03 y + 52.5.55.346.20.03. E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx, Fax: +52.5.55.346.09.06
• Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández, President of the CNDH, E-mail: correo@ cndh.org.mx. Tel: 52.5.55.631.00.40, +52.5.55.681.81.25, Fax: +52.5.55.681.84.90, Lada sin costo: 01 800 00 86; E- mail: correo@fmdh.cndh.org.mx
• Mr. Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña, Secretary of Government, Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtemoc, México D.F., C.P.06600, México, Fax: +52.5.55.093.34.14 / + 52.5.55.093.34.15 E-mail: santiagocreel@compuserve.com; ghuerta@segob.gob.mx
• Master Ricardo Sepúlveda Iguiniz, Human Rights Promotion and Defence Office Director (Director de la Oficina para la Promoción y la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos), Reforma 99, PISO 21, PH, Colonia Tabacalera, C.P. 06030, México Fax: + 52 55 5128 0234 TEL: +52.5.55.128.02.23 y 24, E-mail:rsepulveda@segob.gob.mx
• Mexican Commission for Human Rights Promotion and Defence (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos A.C. - CMDPDH), Tehuantepec 155, Col. Roma Sur, México DF, CP 5584 2731, México, E-mail: cmdpdh@laneta.apc.org
• Governor of Oaxaca, Lic. José Murat Casab, Palacio de Gobierno, Bustamante s/n, 68000 Oaxaca, Oaxaca México, Fax: + 52 951 51 637 37
• Dr. Sergio Segreste Rios, President of the Oaxaca s Human Rights Commission, Calle de los Derechos Humanos No. 210, Col. América, 68050, Oaxaca, México, Fax: + 52 951 51 35 197

Please also write to the embassies of Mexico in your respective countries.

Geneva, 18 January 2007

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Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.