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01/04/12 — Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights (La Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos also known as CNDH) released a report recently indicating that Federal Police (Policía Federal, PF) in Ciudad Juárez are accused of torturing five suspects in an effort to confess that they were responsible for killing two police officers and for a car bomb attack. In a statement, the CNDH stated that the five victims were “interrogated and tortured with the goal that they admitted guilt in the commission of homicide and that they were members of La Linea gang.” The five suspects were taken into custody on August 11, 2010, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Police have since dropped the murder allegations, however the men remain detained on grounds of drugs and weapons charges, said the Washington Post.

In its report, the CNDH urges Mexico to investigate a doctor and six federal officers who are believed to be involved in the torture, and also to give reparations to the men who have been subjected to the human rights violations.

Such behavior on behalf of Mexico’s security forces, including both police and military troops, continues to feed the belief that President Felipe Calderón’s efforts to reduce the drug trade in Mexico is doing more harm than good. As Human Rights Watch, an international organization and human rights watchdog, pointed out in a published report in November, human rights violations in Mexico have dramatically increased over the past five years.

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