CAT/C/71/D/759/2016
were inside the workshop, M.P.H shouted at them rudely to move their truck. The
complainant began to film what M.P.H. was saying on his cell phone. Responding to his
mother-in-law’s screams, the son-in-law, R.F.A., came to the scene and threatened Mr.
Wooden with a machete, telling him that he was going to kill him and “send him back to the
United States in pieces in a sack if he didn’t move the truck”, and that they belonged to the
Guerreros Unidos (“United Warriors”) gang and they owned the street. The complainant’s
wife also filmed the events with her cell phone. R.F.A. continued to threaten the complainant
and even struck the back of the truck with the machete, so damaging the vehicle. The
complainant’s wife called the police, while R.F.A. made several calls.
2.3
Two motorcyclists drew up in a street next to the workshop and spoke with R.F.A.
Two patrol cars from the Taxco municipal police patrol unit then also arrived, and R.F.A.
ordered the police to take Mr. Wooden away, saying “there he is, take him away” while
pointing at the complainant. Six policemen got out of one of the patrol cars and ran towards
the complainant making threatening gestures, so he started running and locked himself in his
workshop. The policemen beat the door down, pointed their guns at him and threatened him.
While proceeding to arrest him, they beat him with their weapons on various parts of his
body, especially his head, throwing him to the floor to subdue him and handcuffing him
behind his back. They stamped on his handcuffed hands with their boots, hit him on the head
with the butts of their rifles, kicked him in the face and jaw with their boots, stamped on his
genitals and ribs, and then put him in the luggage compartment of the patrol car to take him
to the police headquarters. In the patrol car, they continued hitting him in the face and genitals,
called him names, and threatened to kill him and make him disappear as a punishment for
“having messed with them”.
2.4
On arrival at police headquarters, they took him out of the patrol car and, by bypassing
the detainee reception area, managed to avoid having to enter his details in the detainee
register before taking him to the cells unit, where they continued to kick him and beat him
with their rifle butts on different parts of his body. The beatings continued in the cell, where
officers kicked him in the chest, ribs and genitals, beat him relentlessly with a set of keys and
threatened him by saying “you’re not going to get out of here, we’re going to disappear you”.
As he was being taken to the cell, the police officers kicked his legs so that he stumbled and
fell over, causing him further injury.
2.5
After leading him into one of the cells, while he was standing up the officers
handcuffed his left hand only, leaving his right hand uncuffed. One officer then grabbed hold
of the handcuff on this left hand while another grabbed hold of his right hand and together
they pulled his body in both directions while other police officers continued to kick him hard
in the abdomen and ribs. When they had finished beating him, they pressed him up against
the wall and one of the policemen, whom the complainant identified by the name of J.J.V.,
pointed his gun at the complainant’s temple and threatened to kill him. Meanwhile, another
officer, whom the complainant was not able to identify, kept hitting him with a bunch of keys.
They left him injured in the cell and withdrew. The complainant claims that he was beaten
for around three hours.
2.6 Throughout the period of his detention, the complainant was held incommunicado and,
although he requested medical attention, this was denied, as was toilet paper and water. Four
hours later, at 22.30 hours., his wife, who had waited in the car park at police headquarters,
confronted commander R.H.S., telling him that her husband had been taken away by his
police officers for no reason. The wife was forced to pay 200 pesos in cash for her husband’s
alleged “administrative offence” and the complainant was released.
Context
2.7
The complainant notes that the events are set in a context of a pattern of torture in
police practice that is tolerated by the justice officials responsible for investigating the
offence.1 In Guerrero State, which has at times been deemed the most violent in the whole of
Mexico, torture is defined by law as a criminal offence and the legal definition establishes
that, in order for an act to be considered as such, it must have been carried out for a specific
1
2
A/HRC/28/68/Add.3, para. 23.
GE.21-13347