[News] US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/bricker07032008.html

July 3, 2008

Plan Mexico Gets Rough


US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

By KRISTIN BRICKER

Exactly one day after George Bush signed the 
first year of the $1.6 billion Plan Mexico into 
law--giving Mexican military and police US 
training, armament, and resources--videos 
surfaced showing Mexican police undergoing 
torture training in León, Guanajuato. The torture 
training is directed by a British man from an 
unidentified US private security company.

The videos show the English-speaking contractor 
directing and participating in the torture of 
members of the Special Tactical Group (GET in its 
Spanish initials) of the León municipal police 
force during a 160-hour training over twelve days 
in April 2006. Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, the 
Secretary of Public Security in León, says the 
participants volunteered to be tortured as part of the training.

In 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrdL6ggkcUw&eurl=>one 
video, the unidentified contractor drags a GET 
officer through a puddle of his own vomit as 
punishment for failure to complete a training exercise.

In a 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTyjAVKl88E&eurl>second 
video, GET officers squirt mineral water up the 
nose of another officer, a torture technique 
commonly utilized by Mexican police. The man's 
head is also shoved into a hole which supposedly contains rats and feces:

Leon city Police Chief Carlos Tornero told the AP 
that the English-speaking man in the videos is a 
contractor from a private US security firm. 
Tornero refused to elaborate on the man's 
identity, details about the US company, and who contracted the company.

The government's response has been to defend the 
program, attack the media for reporting on the 
videos, and deny the illegality of torture. León 
mayor Vicente Guerrero Reynoso said that the 
training would continue and no public official 
would be punished for involvement in the torture 
training. He demanded that the media "be more 
responsible." Guerrero is a member of President 
Felipe Calderón's right-wing National Action Party.

Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, Secretary of Public 
Security for León, said torture training for 
police is necessary: "It is essential to have a 
special group that responds to certain 
conditions. More and more we see the clear 
involvement, not only in León, but in the whole 
state, of organized crime, and there is a need to 
have these groups." Cabeza de Vaca seemed to be 
most preoccupied with how the videos became 
public. In response to a reporter's question 
about why the municipal government offers illegal 
training that violates human rights, he 
responded, "Well, while it is not prohibited...in 
the end I don't know how the video arrived [in 
the hands of the meda]. The trainer makes the 
recordings to observe and correct the teachings."

Mexico's national daily La Jornada was quick to 
point out that torture is in fact prohibited, 
contrary to the public security chief's 
assertions: "Torture is a crime in Guanajuato: in 
accordance with Article 264 of the state Penal 
Code, the public servant who 'intentionally 
exercises violence against a person, be it in 
order to obtain information or constituting an 
illicit investigation method,' faces a punishment of 2-10 years in prison."

The existence of a training led by a US defense 
contractor to teach Mexican police torture 
tactics in order to combat organized crime and 
the local government's adamant defense of the 
program is particularly disturbing considering 
the US government's recent approval of the $1.6 
billion Plan Mexico, also known as the Merida 
Initiative. Plan Mexico is an aid package 
specifically designed to support President Felipe 
Calderón's deadly battle against organized crime. 
It will fund more US training for Mexican police 
and military, in addition to providing them with 
riot gear, spy equipment, and military aircraft. 
Plan Mexico allows funds for the deployment of up 
to fifty US defense contractors to Mexico.

This is not the first time US defense contractors 
have directed torture in foreign countries. 
During the 2003-2004 Abu Ghraib prison torture 
scandal in Iraq, US soldiers claimed that defense 
contractors who ran the prison directed them to 
torture inmates. Four former Abu Ghraib inmates 
recently filed lawsuits against CACI 
International Inc. of Arlington, Va., and New 
York-based L-3 Communications Corp., formerly Titan Corp., for torturing them.

Kristin Bricker is a freelance reporter living 
and working in Mexico. She is also part of the 
Rebel Imports collective, which sells fair trade 
textiles, coffee, and honey from Zapatista 
cooperatives. She can be reached through 
<http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/>her website.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20080703/e4b30313/attachment.htm>