Erick Razo Casales says he learned patience during the countless hours he spent locked up in a Mexican cell.
Despite being innocent, he suffered multiple physical and psychological abuses when he was arrested in 2011. He was imprisoned for 11 years with the condition of informal preventive detention, that is, without being tried, but accused of kidnapping and organized crime.
"Since I didn't tell them anything, they beat me and began to torture me," says Razo, who was finally released in the early hours of May 28.
"It was 26 hours of torture (...) they didn't let me sleep for 26 hours," he says sadly in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.
Although he is happy to be free, his face darkens with bitterness when he remembers that Veronica, his only sister, has been incarcerated since 2011 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the same crimes, despite claiming to be innocent.
“We want justice to be done.
We want my sister to get out as soon as possible, she has been in prison for many years.
We are doing everything humanly possible to get her out of there,” she says vehemently.
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On June 8, 2011,
the Razo Casales brothers were arbitrarily detained by officers of the Federal Police, a body that no longer exists
, in Mexico City.
Erick was arrested at noon at a gas station in the Iztacalco district, while Veronica was intercepted near her home by seven men in civilian clothes carrying long weapons, who held her at gunpoint, handcuffed her and violently mounted her to a car without license plates. officers.
We were able to corroborate that the police and the prosecution, some tolerated and others carried out acts of torture"
José Luis Espejel Public Defender
"One of the most serious irregularities in this case was that we were able to corroborate that the police and the prosecution, some tolerated and others carried out acts of torture. It is difficult, it is a reality that is still very painful for our country to know that
the agents of the law, or those who are in charge of complying with it, commit crimes.
That is, they pick up people or disappear people to torture them and produce evidence," says lawyer José Luis Espejel, deputy director of the Human Rights Strategic Litigation Unit of the Federal Defense Institute. Public.
According to official documents, Razo Casales was severely beaten during his detention and, among other things, received electric shocks to his genitals and other parts of his body.
Years later,
he still suffers from the consequences of the torture with intense pain in his knees, as well as loss of vision in his left eye, and hearing in one of his ears.
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"You can't ask anything at that moment, other than answer what they ask you. We were several people, who were there being tortured (...) After all that time they took us to what was the Siedo and there, in the Ministry Public, they force my sister and me, and other people, to sign blank sheets also under threats and torture," says Razo Casales.
According to official information, on the way to the police station, the agents stopped at an unknown location where they undressed and beat Verónica Razo Casales.
In addition to her, they tried to suffocate her, applied electric shocks to her and sexually abused her.
"My life was destroyed, it was truncated, it was paused and here they buried me alive (...) there are many in the same situation as me. A lot of defense is missing, a lot of commitment from the judiciary. There are many who are being sentenced for many years and that they have also destroyed their lives and are still here and don't have a time to get out," says Verónica, between sobs, in a voice note sent by her lawyers from the prison in Morelos, where she is being held.
A chilling aspect of this case of torture is that, once confined to the police station,
both brothers were confined in nearby spaces so they could hear how they were being tortured,
while they were threatened that they would kill them if they did not incriminate themselves.
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"The Mexican State must carry out the pertinent investigations so that it is verified that all the people who are detained are guilty. Unfortunately, in the previous government, horrible things happened when they detained us, like what happened to me and to many who are here but who It's scary to talk, they're scared to say what happened. We no longer know if it's fear or if it's shame, we no longer know what to think or what to feel," says Veronica, her voice breaking.
In its report from last year, the Federal Institute of Public Defense claims to have a record of 7,779 possible cases of torture or ill-treatment.
Between September 2019 and May 2021 alone, that instance filed 2,271 complaints for acts of torture and abuse.
"The Mexican State owes a debt, especially with very slow trial processes, we have to work to implement lines of action and achieve reparation for the damage (...) our best retribution is to reunite families, remake stories and have a bright future for them", affirms the lawyer Espejel.
In 2016, a survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of Mexico to more than 64,000 people who were incarcerated in 370 prisons throughout the country, showed that
57.8% of the prison population reported having suffered some type of of physical violence
upon arrest.
Erick Razo Casales during an interview at the headquarters of the Federal Institute of Public Defense in Mexico City, on June 14, 2022.Albinson Linares / Noticias Telemundo
Of those people,
59% reported being punched, hit, or kicked;
36% reported that they were strangled,
submerged in water or suffocated, 28% said they had been threatened with the possibility that they would harm their relatives and 19% said they had been subjected to electric shocks.
Although Erick Razo Casales got sick with COVID twice, while he was unjustly imprisoned, he does not hesitate to say that the psychological damage is one of the aspects that worries him the most.
"I am receiving therapy from the Victims Assistance Commission, but I still have sequelae of torture, I have anxiety, major depression and sleep disorders (...) They are episodes of anxiety, I begin to despair, to perspire, they are various symptoms that suddenly run through my mind and body," she explains.
His sister also suffers the aftermath of the abuse she suffered.
During her 11 years of imprisonment, Veronica has suffered from heart disease, skin problems and hypothyroidism, among other ailments.
"They don't even realize how it destroys
us, they destroy us because they bury us alive
without any hope that something good will happen (...) just like me, many are waiting for a miracle to happen and the institutions are realize that we are alive and that we are not dead as they want to appear", he asserts with discouragement.
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"Cases are on the rise"
Every June 26, the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is celebrated because, on that date in 1987, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment entered into force. Degrading, an instrument that has been ratified by 162 countries in the world.
However, in March of last year, the current special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Nils Melzer, said in a report that, in the face of complaints of these abuses,
most States do not abide by UN recommendations or become defensive.
"Over the years, nine out of 10 complaints of torture and ill-treatment officially submitted to governments in all regions of the world
have either been completely ignored or have not received a response
that would effectively prevent, investigate or redress the violation in question. Melzer asserted.
It also detailed that, based on some 500 official communications sent to the States between 2016 and 2020, "90% of the responses did not systematically comply with the standards of cooperation" required by the Human Rights Council.
They guarantee the impunity of the torturers and deprive the victims of reparation"
Nils Melzer UN Special Rapporteur
"The common point of all these guidelines is that
guarantee the impunity of the torturers and deprive the victims of reparation and compensation," he denounced.
The story of the Razo brothers is an example of the little influence that the UN has in many countries that have signed the Convention against Torture.
In 2021, their case was analyzed by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which determined that their detention was arbitrary and violated international law norms, and therefore ruled that both should be released.
However, months passed before Erick managed to get out of jail and Veronica is still imprisoned.
Various experts and victims agree that torture is a common phenomenon in Mexico, despite the efforts of the current government and the various judicial reforms that have occurred in recent years.
In 2014, Juan E. Méndez was the special rapporteur on torture and visited the country, becoming the first international official to admit that "torture is widespread in Mexico. It occurs especially from arrest to justice, and for purposes of punishment and investigation".
"Throughout all these years of the history of torture in Mexico,
the common denominator is the impunity of these practices in the country
because those who torture have the guarantee that, in the framework of criminal proceedings, torture has some kind of because the person is not completely protected from being tortured," explains academic José Antonio Guevara, former president and member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Noticias Telemundo asked the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) to track the complaints it has received in the last five years, which totaled a number of only 155 files for acts of torture.
However, activists and non-governmental organizations say the figure is much higher.
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"We do not see that torture has decreased, on the contrary, the cases are increasing.
There is still a problem of lack of credibility in the institutions that send a message of impunity and that is why many of the cases are not even reported. ", says Verónica Vázquez Mata, a lawyer in the Defense Area of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH).
The commission is an independent civil organization that advocates for victims of human rights violations and, according to its most recent data compiled by reports from 23 of the 32 State Human Rights Commissions in the country, the total number of complaints filed for "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" from January
2006 to November 2021 reached the figure of 27,486,
a number that is already on a par with that of some of the bloodiest repressive dictatorships on the continent, such as the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
However, it is estimated that the number of cases of torture and abuse could be much higher because, according to various recent academic investigations, the black figure, that is, crimes that are not reported in the country, amounted to 93.3% and from the tiny percentage that does present itself to the authorities almost 95% goes unpunished.
In 2015, a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights specified that of the thousands of complaints of torture made in Mexico since 1991, only 15 had concluded with convictions at the federal level.
"We continue with an issue of not denouncing these acts due to the revictimization that people suffer again when they try to file their complaint and everything they face (...) the victims also suffer reprisals when they raise their voices and denounce these acts of torture. that sends a message that it is better not to file a complaint and let things continue as they are", asserts Vázquez Mata.
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Repression and abuses against migrants
José Miguel Rodríguez smiles when he remembers the mountainous landscapes and abundant springs of Sonsonate, the Salvadoran province where he was born.
He says he misses his food, his friends and his family, but he can't wallow in nostalgia: El Salvador has become forbidden territory for him "because he's dead."
Last year, after being abused for years for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and collecting a flat fee, he had to flee his native mountains because the gangs wanted him to befriend members of a rival organization so that they could would give away
When he refused, he was threatened with death and, one morning, he ran from his house through the wild coffee plantations of his region and did not stop until he reached the border with Guatemala.
"Later,
the gang members came to my house and shot a lot, everything was destroyed and full of holes. There was nothing left
," says Rodríguez, who asked that his real name not be used for fear of reprisals.
With sadness he remembers that when he finally received support from an aid organization, the first thing he did was ask to be connected with his mother.
José Miguel Rodríguez during his therapy at the Médecins Sans Frontières headquarters in Mexico City, on June 23, 2022.Albinson Linares / Noticias Telemundo
"But they told me that she had to be prepared because, for her, I was dead. Fifteen days after I left, they found a body burned and in a state of decomposition. And the doctor got carried away by the dental history and they declared me dead. At that moment I lost my life and all the things that can be had. And my family, because I had to get away from them, "he explains through tears.
At the end of last year, Rodríguez arrived in Mexico and stayed in a state migrant shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, but says that stay was a nightmare.
"The men threatened to rape me all the time, the officials ignored me but I was very scared. Then they put me with the women and, it seems unbelievable, but it was very bad because they also harassed me, they touched me, they wouldn't let me in peace. I fell into a deep depression and I ran away to the center of the city, but there they robbed me and then tried to rape me," she explains with pain in her voice.
According to official calculations, until November 2021,
the authorities detained 252,526 people in immigration detention centers
that did not comply with the necessary hygienic measures due to the pandemic.
In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance received 131,448 asylum applications last year, the highest number ever recorded in the country.
Human Rights First, a Washington-based human rights organization,
recorded at least 7,600 violent attacks in 2021
—including torture, rape, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking, and other assaults—against migrants who were deported to Mexico or people who were prevented from applying for asylum at the border.
"This femicidal country continues to rise."
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"The migrant population is particularly vulnerable, especially undocumented people who cross the country and who can be victims of torture, both by State agents and by agents outside the legality.
Since they do not have documents, it is less likely that denounce the practices of torture
, they also do not approach state institutions because they are afraid of reprisals," warns Edith Olivares Ferreto, executive director of Amnesty International Mexico (AI).
Although in August 2021, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree to release people in prolonged preventive detention who were elderly or victims of torture, AI detailed in its annual report last year that the decree did not incorporates the recommendations of civil society organizations and "limited the possibility of proving that torture had been suffered to medical examinations based on the Manual for the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ( known as the Istanbul Protocol).
"Several civil society organizations point out that, in the event that people could not prove torture through the Istanbul Protocol, they were excluded from the benefit of amnesty and
this is limiting real access to being able to prove torture, which is serious"
, affirms Olivares Ferreto and adds that there are very few institutions with trained personnel to comply with the guidelines of the protocol, which affects the legal processes of the victims.
I can't go back to El Salvador, which is hell.
Besides, I'm dead there"
José Miguel Rodríguez Salvadoran migrant
In Rodríguez's case, his only hope of stability is to stay in Mexico where he is being treated by the Doctors Without Borders team to treat the aftermath of the abuse he has suffered.
"Here they give me my treatments and I'm more stable, because I can't go back to El Salvador, which is hell. Besides, I'm dead there," he says sadly.
"We focus on the victims of extreme violence. It is violence organized with severity and with greater cruelty, where people's lives and dignity are put at risk," explains Néstor Rubiano Soto, coordinator of the Comprehensive Care Center Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Mexico City.
In these facilities, where Rodríguez receives treatment, the MSF team treats an average of 70 patients a year.
While that may seem like a small number, compared to the 400,000 irregular migrants that the International Organization for Migration estimates cross through Mexico each year, Rubiano highlights the dire conditions these people have experienced.
"
They are people who simply struggle to survive and who go with a sea of pain and without hope
, tumbling, while trying to find a better opportunity and here we help them," he says.
In late June, Rodríguez was intently painting a mask on a counter at MSF headquarters.
With a brush he detailed each relief, concentrating his gaze with devotion.
"This half is going to be sad and this is going to be happy. That's how it was when I started everything I've lived through and this is what I've been overcoming," he said with a smile.
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"I had never been threatened with death"
María García says that she loves to cook, in front of the stove she connects with herself, while savoring flavors and breathing in the aromas of food.
In addition, she is a teacher at a school in Cancun where she teaches gastronomy workshops for young people.
"We should all learn to cook, at least for ourselves, because it is an act of infinite love," she says vehemently.
Although she is an independent woman, and her curiosity to learn new things remains intact, she affirms that nothing had prepared her for what she experienced on November 9, 2020 when feminist organizations and civil society in Cancún, Quintana Roo, mobilized to demand justice for the femicide of Bianca Alejandrina, a 20-year-old girl known as Alexis.
"The case of Alexis, who worked at my school, awoke my empathy for the fight against injustice. The slogans clicked in my brain and in my heart because
we cannot allow one more murder
. I was outraged and that's why I went out to protest at the Municipal Palace," she says with emotion.
A demonstration against violence and femicides in the Zócalo of Mexico City, on May 18, 2022. Fernando Llano / AP
In the midst of the protest, the intense repression of the police officers who began to shoot at the demonstrators left several people injured, two with gunshot wounds and complaints of torture, as was the case of García.
"I was scared on the ground and the police were yelling and harassing us, they had never threatened me with death like that day. Suddenly, an officer hit me very hard with a stick on my back, then put a boot on my face to He told me to shut up. Then
he picked me up and punched me very hard in the eye and dragged me
to the back of the Municipal Palace, as I started to scream he hit me in the ribs and that took the air out of me. Everything was in darkness and That's when he started to touch me," García explains with terror.
Garcia's case and many others were recorded in
Mexico: The Age of Women.
Stigma and violence against women who protest
, an Amnesty International report that analyzes various human rights violations in various protests against gender violence that occurred in five Mexican entities during 2020.
“What is the learning that State agents who commit torture can have if nothing happens to them?
Because nobody investigates, because it is not sanctioned and because there are no mechanisms.
Conditions must be created to be able to investigate where and who commits torture, the Government must recognize that this happens in order to be able to design measures so that this practice is eradicated”, asserts Olivares Ferreto, from Amnesty International.
What is the learning that State agents who commit torture can have if nothing happens to them?
Because no one investigates
Edith Olivares Ferreto, director of Amnesty International Mexico
Guanajuato, Sinaloa, Quintana Roo, the State of Mexico and Mexico City
were the scenarios analyzed in the report that denounces that women who protested peacefully saw how the security forces violated their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. with the unnecessary and excessive use of force, they also suffered arbitrary arrests and even episodes of violence and sexual abuse.
"Ahora sufro de ansiedad, depresión, tengo ataques de pánico y estrés postraumático. Es bastante duro porque eso me destruyó, me dejó mal en todo sentido", concluye García, quien hace una semanas fue sometida al Protocolo de Estambul, pero aún espera por justicia.
Muchas mujeres que, como García, han sobrevivido a estos episodios de tortura afirman que la violencia imperante en el país es un factor que dificulta sus procesos de sanación. Solo en 2021, México registró 1,004 casos de feminicidios y, para 2020, la cifra se ubicó en 978 feminicidios.
García dice que, en su cabeza, todavía escucha cuando los policías le gritaban: "¿Querías desmadre? Pues ya valiste madres, perra".
"You don't trust anyone anymore. I don't trust any official, anyone. They have all turned their backs on me. They have closed their doors on me or have hit me directly," he says with resignation.
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"There are many vitiated judgments"
Erick Razo Casales cracks a smile when he recalls that he had to wait more than a decade to eat roast chicken again, a craving he could never satisfy in prison.
"It seems silly but the food there was not good, and I yearned to eat chicken.
11 years of my life were thrown away, that's why I think the Mexican state should repair the damage
it did to me," he says vehemently.
Mientras afirma que el equipo legal de la defensoría lo está asesorando para una posible demanda contra el Estado mexicano, dice que cuenta los días para que su hermana sea liberada. En sueños ya la ha abrazado y espera poder ayudarla a recuperar todo el tiempo perdido. Una de sus aspiraciones es estudiar Derecho para ayudar a las personas que, como él, han sido encarceladas injustamente.
"Un 70, 80% de la población penitenciaria está en la misma situación. La mayoría tiene procesos de más de 7, 8 años sin sentencia y vienen con violaciones graves a sus derechos humanos (...) Yo le diría a las autoridades que revisen los procesos. Hay muchos juicios viciados con fabricación de delitos y personas torturadas que están presas. Hay mucha injusticia en las cárceles de México", asevera.
Verónica Razo sobs when she remembers the day she found out about her brother's release.
She felt great joy, but also deep sadness to see that she is still in prison for a crime she did not commit.
"
I hope the Mexican state does something really strong and something real,
not just for us. There are also men in other prisons who have absolutely nothing to do with certain criminal situations and we are paying for other people, while the real criminals are outside because they do have money, if they have to pay and bribe," he says sadly from the Morelos prison.
If you have information about cases of abuse or torture in Mexico or Central America, you can write to
albinson.linares@nbcuni.com.
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