Geneva, Switzerland. The Mexican State denied that the practice of torture in the country is “generalized”. However, the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Foreign Ministry, Martha Delgado, accepted that there are many institutions that see this crime as a way to obtain information from people who have been accused of a crime.
Before the Committee against Torture of the United Nations Organization (CAT), representatives of the Mexican government said that the number of complaints about this crime is going down, which refutes the statement made the day before. the experts of that international body who pointed out that it was an “endemic and generalized” practice.
This Friday, Mexico appeared before the CAT for its seventh evaluation before this mechanism, this in the framework of the 66th session of the Committee, which takes place in this city. The Mexican delegation was headed by Deputy Secretary Delgado. At the hearing this Friday, it was up to the representatives of our country to respond to the accusations, doubts and questions that the experts made on Thursday regarding the situation of torture in Mexico.
“We are turning to international organizations to help us learn about the best practices that other countries are carrying out to combat this scourge that plagues the country.” One example is to improve interrogation practices, there are countries that have techniques that are more efficient and that they do not require torture, there are many institutions that are resorting to that practice because they think they can not obtain information from the accused in another way, this practice is already unacceptable in the country, “said Delgado.
That comment caused surprise and indignation among many of the members of Mexican civil society organizations who were present at the public hearing held at the Wilson Palace, headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The official admitted that torture exists in Mexico, but not that it is widespread or that it is a State policy.
“The repression and violation of human rights will never be a state policy, as the president himself has said (Andrés Manuel López Obrador), I think it will not be very difficult for him, as the rapporteur recommends, to make an expression in the sense that we do not have a practice of torture in our institutions. “
Francesco Pipitone, representative of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, joined the rejection. “On the reference used yesterday in the sense that torture is a widespread practice in Mexico (made by Diego Rodríguez Pinzón, CAT member), the federal government recognizes the challenges and challenges that torture represents. a serious problem, we have it clear, and we are dealing with it, but it is equally true that it is not a State policy and that its practice is widespread. “
He listed a series of data downwards in complaints about this crime before the National Human Rights Commission. The Federal Police was appointed in 2016 in 360 requests before the instance of fundamental guarantees and 40 times in 2018. The national body issued 113 recommendations against the Army in 2013, a figure that fell to 22 in 2018, of the latter, 11 (50 percent) were for torture. While today the Attorney General of the Republic had 42 complaints for this crime six years ago and 32 last year.
The official omitted however to give in the public hearing The number of recommendations for torture against the Navy, one of the institutions with more accusations. The data from the CNDH reveal that the actions of the sailors generated 40 recommendations in recent years: one in 2007, two in 2008, one in 2009, six in 2010, six more in 2011, the same number one year later, seven in 2013, one in 2014, also one in 2015, seven in 2016 and two in 2017.
“We are NOT satisfied or intend to hide the problems, as a country we have important challenges that include the states that make up the Mexican Republic, but at the federal level there is a downward trend in complaints, partly explained by the training of security forces” , he pointed.
The president of the CAT, Jens Modvig, informed that the representatives of Mexico have until Tuesday of next week at six o’clock in the afternoon to send more comments and answers in writing, since the final report and recommendations to the State will be presented in the middle of may. He also said that there will be three warrants as a matter of urgency, so the Mexican authorities will have a year to make progress on these specific signals.
At the end of the session, Undersecretary Delgado said in an interview: “It is one thing to say that torture is not a State policy and another that is never presented and that it is not a practice, it is, it is the recognition that the State Mexican, torture is a practice and we have many complaints, which is why torture data are increasing in the country, no, there is a consistent decline in this type of crime. “
Source: la jornada
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