Human Rights Groups Slam Mexico in Dispute Over UN Torture Accusation Tim Johnson - McClatchyDC
go to original April 3, 2015

Torture and ill-treatment in Mexico is out of control with a 600 per cent rise in the number of reported cases in the past decade, according to a report published by Amnesty International. (Amnesty International)

See full report: Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico (PDF)

A controversy over the use of torture in Mexico and whether the government has retreated on human rights and rule of law issues intensified this week, with human rights groups denouncing the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto for his administration’s criticism of a United Nations official.

In a letter distributed Tuesday, more than two dozen human rights groups voiced “profound disgust” over his government’s pledge to stop working with the U.N. envoy for torture, who earlier this month declared that the use of torture had become “generalized” in Mexico.

The groups cited what they called an “alarming increase in the number of registered complaints over torture and mistreatment.”

Those signing the letter include groups such as the Institute for Security and Democracy, Freedom House Mexico and Citizens in Support of Human Rights, all of which receive international funding or have strong connections abroad.

The U.N. special envoy on torture, Juan Mendez, issued a scathing report in Geneva March 9 that said all levels of the Mexican security apparatus routinely use torture during interrogation.

“Torture and ill treatment during detention are generalized in Mexico, and occur in a context of impunity,” Mendez, an Argentine, said in the report.

Amid a backlash from Mexican government officials, Mendez later told reporters that his assertion, drawn after a visit to Mexico in April 2014, “is based on hundreds of testimonies that I personally collected during my visits to jails and detention facilities where almost everyone, including children, told me that they’d suffered acts of brutality during detention.”

Read the rest at McClatchyDC

Related: Mexico: UN Rapporteur on Torture Responds Forcefully to Government Attacks (Mexico Voices)



Call on the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, to uphold all anti-torture safeguards, including proper medical examinations, and investigate all allegations of torture in his country at Amnesty International.

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