GUILLERMO ARIAS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexican army soldiers patrol the streets of Ojinaga, near the U.S. border. Ojinaga's residents protested a day earlier against abuses by soldiers sent to crack down on drug trafficking.
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.MEXICO CITY - Israel Arzate Melendez said soldiers snatched him off the street, gave him electric shocks, asphyxiated him and threatened that his wife would be raped and killed unless he admitted to a role in one of Mexico's most infamous cases of drug violence.
When Arzate told a judge he was tortured into falsely confessing to a role in the 2010 massacre of 15 teens at a party in Ciudad Juarez, she responded that his account was too detailed to be fabricated.
Arzate's case was among dozens cited by the group Human Rights Watch in an investigation released Wednesday that accuses the Mexican government of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in its war against organized crime. Two years in the making, the report says the deployment of Mexican troops has coincided with an escalation of violence that had killed more than 35,000 people by the end of 2010. The government hasn't issued new figures since then, although news media and other groups put the number at more than 43,000.
The report outlines misconduct at all levels of authority, from prosecutors who give detainees prewritten confessions to sign, to medical examiners who classify beatings and electric shock as causing minor injuries. Only 15 soldiers have been convicted out of the 3,671 investigations launched by military prosecutors into alleged human rights violations by soldiers against civilians from 2007 to June 2011, according to the report. Not a single soldier or state official has been convicted in any of more than 200 cases the New York-based organization documented in the report.
"The existing approach is certainly not working," Executive Director Kenneth Roth told The Associated Press. "While one can't speak of causality, there's at least a correlation between the deployment of an unaccountable army prone to abuse and the explosion of cartel violence."
Human Rights Watch investigators met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, the country's interior secretary, attorney general and leaders of the armed forces while writing the report. Calderón did not have an immediate response Wednesday, while Attorney General Marisela Morales issued a statement saying the Calderón government has made progress in the defense of human rights and has "pushed for unprecedented openness and transparency."
The organization demands that the government stop allowing the military judicial system to prosecute military crimes and to end the practice of dropping suspects at military bases, where they are routinely tortured into confessions, rather than turning them over to civilian prosecutors.
The report says it documented 170 cases with credible evidence of torture, including waterboarding, electric shocks and asphyxiation, 39 forced disappearances and 24 cases of extra-judicial killings by security forces.
Mexico accused of abuses in drug war
Mexican army soldiers patrol the streets of Ojinaga, near the U.S. border. Ojinaga's residents protested a day earlier against abuses by soldiers sent to crack down on drug trafficking.
..
.MEXICO CITY - Israel Arzate Melendez said soldiers snatched him off the street, gave him electric shocks, asphyxiated him and threatened that his wife would be raped and killed unless he admitted to a role in one of Mexico's most infamous cases of drug violence.
When Arzate told a judge he was tortured into falsely confessing to a role in the 2010 massacre of 15 teens at a party in Ciudad Juarez, she responded that his account was too detailed to be fabricated.
Arzate's case was among dozens cited by the group Human Rights Watch in an investigation released Wednesday that accuses the Mexican government of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in its war against organized crime. Two years in the making, the report says the deployment of Mexican troops has coincided with an escalation of violence that had killed more than 35,000 people by the end of 2010. The government hasn't issued new figures since then, although news media and other groups put the number at more than 43,000.
The report outlines misconduct at all levels of authority, from prosecutors who give detainees prewritten confessions to sign, to medical examiners who classify beatings and electric shock as causing minor injuries. Only 15 soldiers have been convicted out of the 3,671 investigations launched by military prosecutors into alleged human rights violations by soldiers against civilians from 2007 to June 2011, according to the report. Not a single soldier or state official has been convicted in any of more than 200 cases the New York-based organization documented in the report.
"The existing approach is certainly not working," Executive Director Kenneth Roth told The Associated Press. "While one can't speak of causality, there's at least a correlation between the deployment of an unaccountable army prone to abuse and the explosion of cartel violence."
Human Rights Watch investigators met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, the country's interior secretary, attorney general and leaders of the armed forces while writing the report. Calderón did not have an immediate response Wednesday, while Attorney General Marisela Morales issued a statement saying the Calderón government has made progress in the defense of human rights and has "pushed for unprecedented openness and transparency."
The organization demands that the government stop allowing the military judicial system to prosecute military crimes and to end the practice of dropping suspects at military bases, where they are routinely tortured into confessions, rather than turning them over to civilian prosecutors.
The report says it documented 170 cases with credible evidence of torture, including waterboarding, electric shocks and asphyxiation, 39 forced disappearances and 24 cases of extra-judicial killings by security forces.
Mexico accused of abuses in drug war
