Note: "Human Rights" is a regular monthly FNS department which collects stories on human rights related issues: violence against women, prisoner abuse, National and State Commission on Human Rights, missing and disappeared persons, and other issues.
Police Officers Abuse Female Inmate
by Claudia Vallejo, FNS Staff Writer
State Attorney General (PGE) and the Federal Judiciary (PJF) were allegedly involved in a case of torture and violation against a prisoner at the jail in Delicias, the 3rd largest city in Chihuahua, on July 29. As of August 3, four members of the Municipal Police had been accused.
The four officers, three men and one woman, were on shift at Cárcel Piedra "the stone jail" when they allegedly tortured and sexually abused a 24-year-old woman.
An investigation has started against the four police officers by the Public Minister, and an order of apprehension will be requested, according to El Diario. Additionally, the officers have been indefinitely suspended.
Meanwhile, the officers deny the charges, and José Luis Regadas, the municipal director of the Police is apparently defending them. But representatives of the non-governmental organizations (ONGs) reacted against comments made by Reygadas. "We will not tolerate a civil employee publicly forgiving four agents accused of violating a woman," they said to El Diario.
Source: El Diario
Zedillo Receives List of Disappeared
By Anne Marie Mackler, FNS Co-Editor
Although it was a small achievement, the Association of Families and Friends of Missing Persons was able to speak briefly with President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon during his visit to Juárez on August 15. "Now the President can't say he doesn't have information on the disappeared," said Jaime Hervella, a group representative whose office is in Juárez.
Although a number of representatives arrived to speak to the President, only one group member actually saw him. Lorenzo Magaña, whose brother-in-law disappeared in November of 1994, was lead through three different locations, for security reasons, and then was finally able to present a list of disappeared persons to the President. Magaña reports that the President said he had been waiting for this case.
Hervella says that the group has not yet arranged to work with the civil employees of the State Judicial Police (PJE) and the new public prosecutor that the federal government will be sending to Juárez to investigate the disappearances. Hervella believes that the Chihuahuan government has attempted to block the process.
Although Jorge Madrazo, Mexican Attorney General , invited Hervella and the group to meet with him in the Federal District, they declined. Hervella believes the invitation was "jarabe de pico" (just talk).
In a related story, two representatives were appointed by the National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH) to visit and work on the investigations of persons reported disappeared in the State of Chihuahua, particularly Juárez.
José Luis Cervantes Cervantes and Luis Darío Islas Pérez, were said to have accomplished their tasks, which consisted mostly of gathering information. Although in Juárez from August 11 through the 14, it was not announced until August 17, by the police authorities, that these representatives had been sent by the CNDH.
Source: El Diario