EFE.- The UN Committee against Torture asked the Mexican government to “stop criminalizing” the defense of human rights and social protests.
“The arrest and torture of a human rights defender highlights the criminalization of social protest”, the committee concluded, according to a statement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH).
The committee issued this request after concluding that the Mexican Damián Gallardo Martínez, teacher and activist for the rights of indigenous peoples and the right to education, “was a victim of torture in Mexico.”
The organization recalled that Gallardo Martínez, a member of the Ayuujk indigenous people of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec of the Mixe region, promoted education in indigenous communities of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, and participated in protests by the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE ).
But in May 2013, seven policemen broke into his home while he was resting and arrested him without a warrant, according to the UN, to accuse him of participating in organized crime and in the kidnapping of two young men, nephews of “one of the most important businessmen important of Mexico ”.
“Gallardo Martínez was subjected to acts of torture that sought to bend his will to the extreme and convince of the ability of his attackers to inflict pain or even death,” commented Peter Vedel Kessing, a member of the committee.
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The authorities transferred Gallardo Martínez to a maximum security prison in Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, where he was detained for more than five years until the Public Ministry requested that the case be dropped in December 2018.
But during this time, the activist was “brutally beaten, subjected to oral and anal examinations, deprived of water and sleep, as well as being held in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day.“, According to the opinion of the UN committee.
“The direct relatives of Gallardo Martínez are also indirect victims due to the psychological and emotional impact of the torture suffered by him and because of the stigmatization and harassment they faced. Therefore, they are also entitled to full reparation, ”added Vedel Kessing.
The complaint occurs while Mexico faces a crisis of violence against human rights activists.
In this sense, the Ministry of the Interior recognized last July the murder of at least 68 human rights defenders and 43 journalists during the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who assumed power on December 1, 2018.
The UN committee concluded that the process against Gallardo Martínez “is part of a pattern of criminalization of social protests.”
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