April, 04 2011, 02:06pm EDT
Mexico: Investigate Enforced Disappearances in Ciudad Juarez
Police Accused, Torture Allegations Against Chief
WASHINGTON
Mexico's federal authorities should immediately take over the investigation into the possible enforced disappearance by municipal police of four civilians in Ciudad Juarez, Human Rights Watch said today.
In addition, authorities in Baja California should ensure a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into credible accusations of torture by Julian Leyzaola, now the police chief in Ciudad Juarez, Human Rights Watch said. Those violations were allegedly committed by Leyzaola in 2009 and 2010, when he served as police chief of Tijuana.
At approximately 7 p.m. on March 26, 2011, four civilians - Juan Carlos Chavira, 28, Dante Castillo, 25, Raul Navarro, 29, and Felix Vizcarra, 22 - were detained by municipal police in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, according to Chihuahua's State Human Rights Commission. Five eyewitnesses told the commission that police stopped the pick-up truck in which the civilians were travelling and detained them.
"Strong evidence of police involvement in the disappearances and the lackluster investigation by state officials cast serious doubt on the ability of local authorities to investigate this crime," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "With the lives of these four men hanging in the balance, federal prosecutors should immediately take over the investigation."
Family members of the victims found their abandoned pick-up truck at 1 a.m. on March 27 in a tunnel miles away from where they had been detained. The vehicle's license plates had been removed and its keys left on the floor of the interior.
On March 27, Rosa Maria and Armida Vazquez - the mother and sister of two of the missing men - went to the offices of the municipal police, federal police, and state and federal prosecutors to ask if they were holding the men. All denied having the civilians in their custody. When Armida Vazquez informed the state prosecutor's office that she wanted to file a complaint of their disappearance, she was told to return the following day, according to testimony given to the State Human Rights Commission. She returned on March 28 and filed a complaint, which was registered as case 8/77/11.
Eyewitnesses provided the State Human Rights Commission with the numbers of the police units who allegedly detained the civilians, which the commission handed over to state investigators. Two of the units allegedly involved, according to the commission, pertain to the bodyguards of Julian Leyzaola, the director of the Ciudad Juarez municipal police, accused of participating in abuses in Tijuana documented by Human Rights Watch and the National Human Rights Commission.
The state prosecutor's office has commented publicly that it is investigating the case as a crime of enforced disappearance, and that evidence points to police involvement. Meanwhile, the mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Hector Murguia Lardizabal, said that he ordered the city's department of internal affairs to investigate the case. However, the State Human Rights Commission informed Human Rights Watch that state investigators had done little to gather evidence, and had yet to question all the police officers in the cited units.
The municipal police department continues to deny having detained the four men, and no officers have been arrested in connection with the case. More than one week after the civilians disappeared, their whereabouts remain unknown.
In March 2011, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance conducted an official visit to Mexico, during which Human Rights Watch and other organizations presented it with other cases of enforced disappearances. Among the preliminary observations the group made on March 31, was that, "impunity for crimes in general and enforced disappearances in particular remains a central challenge in Mexico at the federal and state level." The group reported that, "there have been a number of problems identified in investigations into cases of enforced disappearances, including omissions, delays and lack of due diligence," which it urged the Mexican government to address.
Background on Julian Leyzaola
Human Rights Watch documented grave abuses allegedly committed by Ciudad Juarez's police chief, Julian Leyzaola, when he served as chief of police in Tijuana, Baja California, as noted in a September 2010 letter to President Felipe Calderon. According to several victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Leyzaola participated directly in the torture of individuals who were arbitrarily detained, transported to military bases, and subjected to beatings, electric shocks, death threats, and asphyxiation to obtain false confessions.
In a report released in August 2010, the State Human Rights Commission of Baja California reached a similar conclusion, finding that police officers under Leyzaola arbitrarily detained, held incommunicado, tortured, and planted false evidence on five individuals. The report states that Leyzaola was not only present when the torture was carried out, but personally asphyxiated one of the victims by placing a plastic bag over his head and punching him repeatedly.
Jorge Ramos, former mayor of Tijuana, rejected the recommendation of the commission. Despite these well-documented allegations, Baja California's governor, Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan, promoted Leyzaola to the state's sub-director of public security in December 2010.
The National Human Rights Commission adopted the state commission's recommendation, and reissued it to Baja California's state assembly and to the new mayor of Tijuana, Carlos Bustamante, in November 2010. Both accepted the recommendation in December. Authorities in Baja California are still collecting evidence regarding the torture accusations against Leyzaola originally filed with state authorities in 2009, the National Human Rights Commission informed Human Rights Watch.
Leyzaola resigned from his position as head of public security in Baja California in February 2011. In March, he was named Ciudad Juarez's chief of police by the mayor, Murguia Lardizabal. "We are backing a person who has experience, who is honest, who has the ability to give his best to combat the lack of security in Juarez," said the mayor upon appointing Leyzaola. He added Leyzaola was, "a man who has produced results."
The credible accusations of human rights violations by Leyzaola call into question his ability to adequately investigate the recent enforced disappearances in Ciudad Juarez, and raise doubts about his leadership of the police department in general, Human Rights Watch said.
"It is reprehensible for authorities in Baja California and Chihuahua to promote an official against whom there are credible accusations of torture," said Vivanco. "It sends precisely the wrong message to security forces: that violating human rights is the mark of a good officer."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and BrasÃlia's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular