Mexico plagued by abuse in justice system

CNN January 14, 1999 Mexico plagued by abuse in justice system - report

                  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A U.S.-based human rights group on
                  Thursday accused Mexican police of routinely using torture to force
                  confessions from suspects and said judges were turning a blind eye.

Human Rights Watch said in a report that police, the military, judges and
prosecutors condone the abuses, and then try to cover up their actions.

                  "Torture is nothing new in Mexico," said Joel Solomon, author of the report:
                  "Systematic Injustice: Torture, Disappearance and Extrajudicial Execution in
                  Mexico."

"What is missing is an effective response by the state to this type of abuse,"
he said.

The report accused Mexican law enforcement and the judicial system of
manipulating and corrupting evidence and the law and abusing defendants.

                  "Through wilful ignorance of abuses or purposeful fabrication of evidence,
                  prosecutors routinely prosecute victims using evidence obtained through
                  torture and illegal detention, and judges avail themselves of permissive law
                  and legal precedent to condemn victims while ignoring abuses.

                  "In the face of such torment, victims and their family members must also
                  abide a justice system more likely to prosecute the victim using evidence
                  obtained through abuse than it is to see the perpetrators sent to prison," it
                  added.

                  Human Rights Watch met Attorney General Jorge Madrazo, Foreign
                  Minister Rosario Green and Interior Minister Francisco Labastida on
                  Wednesday and presented them with the report.

There was no public reaction from the government to the findings.

The report cited abuses in legal processes from common criminal cases to
the military's counter-insurgency efforts against suspected leftist rebels.

                  In one instance, murder suspect Juan Lorenzo Rodriguez Osuna was
                  arrested two years ago in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. He was
                  tortured and wrongly convicted, the report said.

                  "The state judge who sentenced Rodriguez Osuna on murder charges went
                  out of her way to exclude evidence that favored him, while admitting
                  incriminating evidence obtained under conditions that violated human rights
                  standards," it said. He remains in jail.

                  The report alleged in another case that soldiers in the southern state of
                  Oaxaca, a hotbed of guerrilla activity, gave an indigenous man electric
                  shocks to his testicles and extracted a confession in Spanish, despite the fact
                  he only spoke his native tongue.

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has said establishing the rule of law is one
of the key priorities of his administration.

But critics said he is failing to do so.

The report urged Zedillo to create a system that makes judges and
prosecutors accountable for using evidence obtained through rights abuse.

"Mexican judges should reject evidence obtained illegally.

That would force Mexican police to change their habits," Solomon told a
news conference.