On 14 December, human-rights organizations including members of the Chiapas Peace Network and the National Network of Human-Rights Organizations All Rights for All released a communique regarding the naming of Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca as Secretary of Public Security in Chiapas. The communique affirms that “the new Secretary has been indicated as being responsible for torture and other human-rights violations in the state of Chiapas due to the arrests and torture carried out during the police operation in the San Jose community, Marques de Comillas municipality, while he held the position of Public Minister. [Recommendations from the State Commission on Human Rights and the National Commission on Human Rights regarding these acts] were rejected by the government in turn, thus protecting the perpetrators and leaving the victims in impunity.”
The note also mentions that Llaven Abarca, during his time as head of the Special Prosecutorial Office against Organized Crime (FECDO), “which took place under governor Juan José Sabines Guerrero, the present Secretary was identified as perpetrator of acts of arbitrary detentions, disproportionate and undue use of public force, community control, death threats, torture, and other human-rights violations; among the most famous acts are found the detention and torture of members of the Other Campaign in San Sebastián Bachajón, the detention and torture of David Potenciano Torres and the death-threats against his family, due to his being indicated as victim of torture, the detention and torture of Wilber Cortez Acosta, among other denounced cases. During his time in the FECDO, human-rights organizations registered a high number of torture victims.”
The communique ends by stressing that “With this naming, it is observed that there exists resistance against implementing the constitutional reforms in human rights and that, instead of this, the old practices and customs continue which cause human-rights violations and incentivize the continued use of torture in Chiapas.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Pronunciamiento conjunto (14 de diciembre de 2012)
Repudian designación de Llaven Abarca al frente de la SSP-Chiapas (Proceso, 14 de diciembre de 2012)
Cuestionan activistas al secretario de seguridad en Chiapas; cometió tortura
(La Jornada, 16 de diciembre de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Mexico: UN Committee against Torture expresses grave concern for the practice of torture in Mexico (9 November 2012)
National: Amnesty International presents report regarding use of torture in Mexico (19 October 2012)
National: International judges report on conclusions of the observation of state of justice in Mexico (12 October 2012)
Chiapas: Presentation of report on torture in Chiapas “From Cruelty to Cynicism” (2 July 2012)
The OMCT condemns torture in Chiapas (18 August 2011)
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