Rafael Castillo: Mexico's Military Might Have to Stop Torturing People Rafael Castillo - VICE News
go to original May 12, 2014

Israel Arzate and his mother, Guadalupe Melendez, answered questions at a Mexico City news conference last November after he was released for lack of evidence he took part in a massacre. (Eduardo Verdugo/The Associated Press)

Over the course of 28 hours, Israel Arzate received repetitive electroshocks to the chest. A plastic bag was placed over his head as he listened to Mexican military personnel threaten to rape and murder his wife. These torture methods led to Arzate confessing to involvement in the January 2010 Villas de Salvarcar massacre in Ciudad Juarez, where 16 young students at a party were murdered, and 10 others were seriously injured.

Arzate had originally been arrested and accused of being in possession of a stolen van on February 3, 2010. He was illegally detained in a military compound for over a day, where he was tortured. Yet the confession that implicated him in these murders allowed the public prosecutors to declare his detention legal.

Arzate’s case could have been tried transparently if the Military Justice Code reform, that Mexican Congress approved on April 30, had existed at the time.

The reform seeks to limit military jurisdiction in any case that implicates civilians and raises questions of whether their rights have been violated — placing special emphasis on torture and forced disappearances. Under the new legislation, any crime that involves civilians will now no longer be judged by military tribunals.

As the Mexican Senate stated in a press release: “When a crime or violation of due process is committed against a civilian, the corresponding civil authorities will be notified.”

Read the rest at Vice News

Photo: Associated Press

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