Follow-up of case MEX 240107_ Formal accusation against Diego Arcos Meneses and denial of his procedural rights

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Mexico.

New Information

The International Secretariat of the OMCT is highly concerned with the new information received on the judicial proceedings against Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses, especially with the formal accusation against him for homicidio calificado (roughly equivalent to first degree murder) which could yet again be a violation to his right to a fair trial.

According to the information received from reliable sources, on 17 February 2007, the Attorney General, Head of the 2nd Board for the Jungle Zone’s Regional Prosecutor’s Office (Fiscal del Ministerio Público, Titular de la Mesa 2 de la Fiscalía Regional Zona Selva) formally accused Mr. Arcos Meneses of being responsible for the events which took place in the community of Viejo Velasco Suárez on 13 November 2006[1], as well as of belonging to a criminal organisation.

These charges are allegedly based on various statements from the people of Nueva Palestina, the actual perpetrators of the November 13 attack against the community of Viejo Velasco. Other such statements were given by local authorities, members of the local Prosecutor’s Office, judges and other individuals and groups holding certain economic and political interests in an area of the Selva Lacandona’s (Lacandon Jungle) known as Montes Azules. All of these people were reportedly interrogated and subsequently testified during the 90 days of Mr. Arcos Meneses’ detention under Arraigo[2].

According to the same information, Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses gave his initial testimony (declaración preparatoria) on 17 February 2007, insisting on his innocence and denying the allegations against him. Furthermore, Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses will have to remain in custody for a year while his trial takes place.

Moreover, according to the same reliable sources, the Attorney General has allegedly tried to hold only the inhabitants of Viejo Velasco Suárez responsible for the attack perpetrated against this community on 16 November 2006. Nevertheless, it has been reported that it was the inhabitants of the community of Nueva Palestina who perpetrated the attack, in alleged complicity with the local authorities. Only two inhabitants from Viejo Velasco Suárez have testified before the Prosecutor’s Office. In their statements, they declared that Mr. Arcos Meneses’ interpreter from his native indigenous language into Spanish recorded the defendant’s statement inaccurately and corroborated the Prosecutor’s Office’s allegations against Mr. Arcos Meneses.

OMCT fears that the allegations against Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses and the formal accusation against him may be solely aimed at his imprisonment as a scapegoat through a clear fabrication of evidence.

Brief reminder of the situation

OMCT was informed on 14 November 2006 of the arrest of Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses, a 42 year-old farmer of ch’ol indigenous origins from Cololil, Tumbalá, Chiapas. Mr. Arcos Meneses was living in Nuevo Tila, Ocosingo: a development area led and attended to by Jesuit priests and nuns belonging to the Order of the Divine Shepherd. He has been a health promoter and a catechist for many years. Moreover, he was recently elected by his community as the deputy to the municipal auxiliary agent (suplente del agente auxiliary municipal).

Mr. Arcos Meneses was arrested as he arrived at the community of Viejo Velasco. He originally declared to have gone there to harvest corn from a field. However, he has now admitted that when he heard of the attack perpetrated against Viejo Velasco, his prime motivation for going there was to “see who might be hurt or in need of help”.

After his arrest, Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses was taken around to the houses which had been subjected to the attack, including the house in which they found the body of Ms. María Núñez González. Mr. Arcos Meneses was then interrogated, even though he had no previous knowledge of Ms. Núñez González murder. He was then made to carry the corpse to a helicopter in which he was transported to a field allegedly belonging to the police, near the area of Palenque. From there, he was driven to the Prosecutor’s Office, where he was interrogated over his presence in Viejo Velasco. Furthermore, because the houses in Viejo Velasco had been abandoned due to the recent attack, he was accused of having been there to attempt robbery.

The results of the paraffin test done on Mr. Arcos Meneses at the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that he had not fired any gun that day. Despite the fact that the defendant does not have full command of Spanish and does not know how to write, he testified at the Prosecutor’s Office without the assistance of an interpreter. His statement was then put to him for signature, which Mr. Arcos Meneses refused to do under the excuse that he cannot read, write or sign. In spite of that, he was grabbed by the hair, hit on the mouth, beat and subjected to all sorts of abuses and mistreatments by the guards in an attempt to make him sign the document. The real reason for Mr. Arcos Menes’ refusal to sign was that he feared the document might have been a declaration of guilt of robbery.

On an Urgent Appeal published on 24 January 2007[3], the International Secretariat of the OMCT expressed its concern in regards to this situation. OMCT was particularly alarmed by the violation of Mr. Arcos Meneses’ right to personal liberty, since he was being held in the absence of any evidence against him. At the time, OMCT also condemned the prolongation of Mr. Arcos Meneses’ arrest under arraigo, not only because he is presumably innocent, but also because this measure left him in an undefined legal situation, making his lawyers’ task more difficult.

Action requested

Please write to the Mexican authorities urging them to:

1. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Diego Arcos Meneses, all members of his family as well as all members of the community of Viejo Velasco Suárez;
2. Order his immediate release in the absence of valid charges, or, if such charges exist, bring him before an independent, impartial and competent tribunal and guarantee his procedural rights at all times;
3. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into his alleged arbitrary detention, ill- treatment and other human rights violations to which Mr. Arcos Meneses was subjected, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the civil penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
4. Ensure the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards, particularly with the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment as well as the Convention Against Torture.

Addresses

• The Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations, 16 Avenue du Budé, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Fax :+41.22.748.07.08 TEL.: +41.22.748.07.07. E-mail: mission.mexico@ties.itu.int
• Ambassador Sr. Jorge Ciero, Diplomatic Mission of Mexico in Brussels, 94 avenue F.D. Rossevelt, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium, Tel.: + 32 2 629 07 11; Fax: + 32 2 644 08 19
• President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Residencia Oficial de "Los Pinos", Co. San Miguel Chapultepec, México D.F., C.P. 11850. Fax: +52.5.55.522.94.13 / +52 5 55 277 23 76. E-mail: radio@appresidencia.gob.mx ; webadmon@appresidencia.gob.mx
• Mr. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, Procuraduría General de la República, Reforma Norte esquina Violeta 75. Colonia Guerrero CP. 06300, México D.F. TEL: +525553462003 and + 525553462.03. E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx ; Fax: +525553460906
• Mr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández, Presidente de la NHRC, E-mail: correo@cndh.org.mx TEL: 525556310040, Fax: +525556818490, E- mail: correo@fmdh.cndh.org.mx
• Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña, Secretary of Government, Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtemoc, México D.F., C.P.06600.Fax:+52.5.55.093.34.14 + 52.5.55.093.34.15 E-mail: santiagocreel@compuserve.com ; ghuerta@segob.gob.mx
• Maestro Ricardo Sepúlveda, TEL: +52.5.55.128.02.23 y 24, Fax: +52.5.55.128.02.34 y + 52.5.55.128.02.24, E-mail: rsepulveda@segob.gob.mx
• Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos A.C. (CMDPDH), Tehuantepec 155, Col. Roma Sur, México DF, CP 5584 2731.E-mail: cmdpdh@laneta.apc.org

If you would like to, you may also write to the following individuals in Chiapas:

• Juez Primero de Distrito, del Vigésimo Circuito en el Estado de Chiapas, C.P.29240, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México. Fax: +52.961.61.70.351
• Juez del Ramo Penal de Playas de Catazajá, Chiapas, CP 29980 Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México. Fax: +52 916.36.60.033
• Licenciado Walter Culebro González, Fiscal Regional Zona Centro, CP 30064, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Fax: +52.961.61.65.724 Correo-E.: mherran@fge.chiapas.gob.mx
• Licenciado Juan José Sabines Guerrero, Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Chiapas, Palacio de Gobierno Chiapas, C.P. 29009, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. Fax: +52 961.61.88.088 + 52.961.61.88.056
• Licenciado Horacio Schroeder Bejarano, Secretario de Seguridad Pública del Estado de Chiapas, C.P. 29070 Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Correo-E.: hschroeder@chiapas.gob.mx Fax: +52.961.61.77.020 Extensión 16045
• Magistrado Milton Escobar Castillejos, Presidente del Supremo Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Chiapas, Palacio de Justicia Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Conmutador:+52.961.617.87.00 FAX: +52.961.616.53.50 E-mail: presidencia@stj-chiapas.gob.mx

Please also be so kind as to write to the Mexican embassy in your country.

Geneva, 9 March 2007

Please let us know of any action undertaken, citing this appeals number in your message.

[1] See OMCT’s Urgent Appeal MEX 241106.

[2] During the Committee Against Torture’s (CAT) sessions of the 8th and 9th of November 2006, the Committee made its concern known to the Mexican State in regards to the Arraigo Penal: “The Committee is concerned by the ‘Arraigo penal’ which, according to the information received, has become a form of preventive detention through the use of security houses (known as ‘casas de Arraigo’). Such places are watched over by members of the judiciary police and agents of the Prosecutor’s Office (roughly equivalent of ‘Ministerio Público’). Here, indictees can be held for a period of 30 to up to 90 days in some states, while the search for evidence takes place. This search may include interrogatories. (…)”. (OMCT translation)

[3] See OMCT’s Urgent Appeal MEX 240107.