| | |  Editorials | Issues | October 2008 
Human Rights Official Decries Military Takeover, Abuses in Juarez
 Alejandra Gomez - Newspaper Tree
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 |  | According to the state commission’s human rights violation reports, more than 100 men and women have been brutally tortured by the military to obtain information about drug dealers. |  | | | |
Victims have claimed that they have been blindfolded and put in cells where they can hear the screams of other people, said Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson of the Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission. They have also been suffocated by plastic bags filled with water over their heads. They have been undressed, wetted down and put into freezers until ice has formed all over their body. Hickerson also said that some men have received electrical shocks to their testicles.
Last year, 20 violations of human rights were reported to the Chihuahua State Commission of Human Rights. This year, since the arrival of the military to Juarez, more than 250 violations – including torture, robbery and kidnapping – have been reported.
The military arrived in Juarez in March with the authorization of President Felipe Calderon, the secretary of defense and the support of the state and local government to protect Juarez citizens from the injustices of the ongoing drug war. To this day, more than 1,000 men and women have been killed in Juarez.
However, the lawyer and official representative of the Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission, Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, said the presence of the military in Juarez is unconstitutional and in violation of human rights.
According to the Articles 1 to 29 of the Mexican Constitution, which defend individual rights, the military can only intervene in a city when there is a natural disaster or when a state of war has been declared.
Juarez has been labeled the city of drug wars, but the Mexican Congress has not approved the presence of the military or declared war.
To show their power as soon as they arrived in Juarez, the soldiers established impromptu checkpoints all over the city. When a local police officer refused to stop, he was the first one to be shot to death.
Hickerson said more than 10 people have been shot by soldiers in Juarez for not stopping at the checkpoints.
According to Article 11, citizens have a right to free transit. Therefore, the establishment of checkpoints within the city by any authority is prohibited.
Furthermore, according to Article 16, which states that: “No one shall be molested in his person, family, domicile, papers, or possessions except by virtue of a written order of the competent authority,” citizens have the right to refuse to stop at checkpoints unless the soldiers have a written warrant issued by a competent judicial authority.
However, those who do not stop are followed, sometimes shot or detained by the soldiers for questioning. The questioning takes place at a makeshift military command center in the neighborhood.
Hickerson claims that the typical questions are: “Who sells drugs in your neighborhood?” “Where are the stash houses located?” and, “Who provide the drugs to the stash houses?”
According to the state commission’s human rights violation reports, more than 100 men and women have been brutally tortured by the military to obtain information about drug dealers.
Victims have claimed that they have been blindfolded and put in cells where they can hear the screams of other people, Hickerson said. They have also been suffocated by plastic bags filled with water over their heads. They have been undressed and wetted down and put into freezers until ice has formed all over their body. Hickerson also said that some men have received electrical shocks to their testicles.
After they have been released, these people have approached the State Human Rights Commission for protection. But, Hickerson said, some have then been captured by drug cartels and killed for possibly disclosing information under torture.
Hickerson said the information the soldiers obtain is kept by the military and not shared with local or state police and that there is no coordination among them.
“The military has taken over the city. The local government is completely incompetent,” he said.
In violation of Article 16, many instances of robbery have also been reported by citizens who claim that soldiers go into homes without warrants searching for drugs and weapons. What they take primarily, Hickerson said, is food.
“Soldiers make $100 pesos a day and are only fed Ramen noodles and Coca-Cola,” he said.
The typical age of soldiers in Juarez is 18 to 35. Hickerson said they have to work up to 36 hour shifts. Many of them are from other states and are in Juarez for the first time.
“Whose hands are we in? Who is protecting us?” Hickerson wonders.
Of the 250 human rights violation reports, none has been investigated because the state commission has to send the reports to the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City and, Hickerson said, they have not visited Juarez a single time since these violations were filed.
Hickerson says he has been harassed by the military and that his rights have been violated like those of any other citizen.
This week, Chihuahua State Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza criticized the work of the AFI in Juarez, the federal investigation agency in charge of investigating drug-related crimes. Baeza claimed they are incompetent.
On Tuesday, all of the federal agents left Juarez without warning.
“Perhaps it is retaliation of the federal government against the criticism,” Gov. Baeza’s representative, Victor Valencia, said.
The question still remains, who is protecting Juarez?
Alejandra Gomez is Newspaper Tree’s correspondent in Juarez. |
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