Mexico torture cases increase 600 percent in 10 years

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico torture cases increase 600 percent in 10 years
10 September 2014 01:34 (Last updated 10 September 2014 01:42)

Moving the country's army and navy in areas to combat organized crime has helped to spike the increase in torture, according to a human rights group.

Mexico City

Claims of torture in Mexico have increased 600 percent during a 10-year period, according to a human rights group.
Amnesty International says that between 2003 and 2013 torture in the country exploded, in part, due to the large-scale deployment of the army and members of the navy in recent years to combat organized crime, according to its report “Mexico: Out Of Control: Torture And Other Ill-Treatment In Mexico.”

The 94-page report found that “torture is often used to extract ‘confessions’ and testimony serving as evidence to prosecute people who may or may not be involved in a crime.”

The results are unfair trails and suspect convictions where innocent civilians become inmates while the guilty go free.

~snip~
Research found that different forms of torture are systematically reported from different parts of the country, including partial suffocation, beatings, sexual violence, death threats and electric shocks, among others.

Read more: http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/386650--mexico-torture-cases-increase-600-percent-in-10-years

[Judi Lynn]

1. Who remembers George W Bush's move to add muscle to Mexico's drug war?

This article might refresh some memories:

A Primer on Plan Mexico

By Laura Carlsen | 5 / May / 2008
Updated July 10, 2008

On June 30, President George W. Bush signed into law the “Merida Initiative”—better known as Plan Mexico—just days after it passed Congress as part of the Iraq supplemental funding bill. The measure had to go through several versions before finally being approved by both houses, as legislators went back and forth with the Bush administration and Mexico President Felipe Calderón’s government over human rights conditions.

In the end, even the weak conditions that had been placed on the bill were largely removed. Both administrations proclaimed themselves satisfied with the deal, and Congress hailed a new era in binational cooperation. But with human rights relegated to the sidelines, Mexican society and U.S.-Mexico relations face a militarized future in which the unchecked power of abusive security forces adds to, rather than resolves, the alarming violence of organized crime.

The final aid package of $400 million differs little in content and conception from the original version presented by President Bush on Oct. 22 of last year. According to the Bush proposal and authorization by the House of Representatives, the entire three-year package could allocate up to $1.6 billion to Mexico, Central American, and Caribbean countries for security aid to design and carry out counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and border security measures.

Mexico and the United States face a joint challenge in decreasing transnational organized crime and they must cooperate to strengthen the rule of law and stop illegal drug and arms trafficking over the border. But in the rush to tag Plan Mexico on to the Iraq supplemental and demonstrate support for Mexico to Latino voters, many legislators paid little attention to the specifics of the measure. The initiative contains fatal flaws in its strategy. Its military approach to counter-narcotics work will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses and result in an inability to achieve its own goals.

More:
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/1474