At Least 17 'Confessed' Drug Traffickers Released Under New National Torture Protocol Alfredo Mendez - La Jornada
go to original May 7, 2015

In two recent weeks, at least 17 drug traffickers and "confessed" operators of various criminal groups were released after federal courts seated in the states of Jalisco and Tamaulipas revoked prison sentences upon confirming that the police and/or military who apprehended them used methods of torture to extract confessions.

In recent months, criteria issued by various federal courts (unitary and collegiate circuit) have been standardized. [The standardization comes] after the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) last year issued a national protocol governing the performance of judges faced with proven instances of torture. The national protocol forces them to grant the freedom of a prisoner who has been subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, even if a prosecutor had provided evidence of his full [participation] in the crime for which he is charged.

According to records of the Federal Judiciary (PJF) consulted by La Jornada, judges of the first and third Unitary Courts of Jalisco and judges of the Second Collegiate Court of Tamaulipas, ordered the immediate release of several members of the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels. Of the convicted and confessed criminals who gained their release, fourteen belonged to the Gulf cartel.

Federal Judge José Montes, with the Third Unitary Court of Jalisco ordered the immediate release of the accused, after 5 years and 10 months' imprisonment, upon considering that the Attorney General's Office (PGR) could not prove that their confessions were lawful. The court ruling says: "From the evidence recounted earlier, it can be deduced that the defendants were beaten and that the State [failed to] demonstrate that the confessions surrendered to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Guanajuato was voluntary."

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