The protocol to prevent torture “was perverted” in Mexico, they accuse

Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, July 19, 2022, p. 6

Members of human rights organizations affirmed that the problem of the application in Mexico of the Istanbul protocol, designed to investigate possible cases of torture, is not due to the design of this instrument, but to the personnel that apply it in the country.

Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, director of the Idheas organization, explained that the protocol is a valuable tool, but it has served as absolute evidence to confirm torture. In addition, those who apply it are experts from the prosecutor’s offices, that they are not qualified or independent, because what they do is protect the torturers, who are their own colleagues or work colleagues.

Meanwhile, Fernando Valadez, president of the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI), agreed that one of the main problems is that the personnel who apply it are part of the instances indicated for torture, for which it is necessary that accept the participation of independent experts.

After Guillermo Fernández Maldonado, representative in Mexico of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH), stated in an interview with La Jornada that the protocol has served to exonerate the authorities from possible accusations of torture, Gutiérrez added that in the country (the protocol) has been perverted, like everything that is done in judicial matters.

He considered that in many of the cases there are clear elements for a judge to accept that there are conditions of torture, such as obvious physical evidence of beatings, so it is necessary, instead of systematically resorting to protocol, believe the victim’s testimony.

The presence of independent experts is also required, but that they do not charge high sumsbecause it has become a big business in which poor people do not have the capacity for an expert opinion of this type.

For his part, the president of the CCTI added that the judicial apparatus must be cleaned up; in Mexico it is a commodity for the highest bidder, even serious crimes, those who commit it go free or are not even arrested after a payment.

He pondered that “the protocol is an excellent instrument and, on the other hand, what must be changed are the people in the judicial apparatus that apply it, because they are totally in collusion and are at the service of the torturers or they are the torturers.

He pointed out that impunity in the matter of torture is 99 percent in the country and practically no one is sentenced for this crime because, he insisted, it is the judicial apparatus itself that tortures.