A disturbing new video leak showing Mexican state agents torturing a detainee has offered further proof that Mexico has a torture problem and that the state is directly involved in abuses, a fact that authorities have repeatedly denied.
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The video, submitted anonymously to local media El Proceso, Aristegui Noticias, and Animal Politico through the free speech platform MexicoLeaks, shows an alleged officer of the south central state of Mexico's Attorney General’s office repeatedly suffocating Silverio Rodriguez Martinez by forcing a plastic bag over his head.
At least six officers are in the room, including one seen videotaping the torture.
Rodriguez Martinez was arrested in 2014 over alleged crimes of kidnapping and extortion as a member of an organized crime syndicate.
According to the source of the leak, the officer leading the torture was Pedro Velazco Estrada, who worked in the state of Mexico’s Attorney General’s office special operations divisions from 2009 to 2015, when he joined the federal Attorney General’s office as deputy commander of criminal investigations.
Velazco Estrada reportedly passed all screening processes allowing him to secure the federal justice position. The new leak casts doubt on the process.
According to Aristegui Noticias, the Attorney General’s office has not confirmed Velazco Estrada’s identity, saying an investigation will be necessary. Nevertheless, the officer was removed from his post on Friday over “suspicions” he was involved in the crime.
Mexico’s Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights has said that evidence suggests torture is a widespread practice among police forces throughout Mexico as part of criminal investigations.
The United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, has also reported that state-sanctioned torture proliferates in Mexico under the reign of systemic impunity.
A leaked video last month revealed another case of torture by suffocation by military troops and an apparent police officer.
The new torture case comes to light as a Mexican judge absolved on Friday three soldiers accused of the 2014 extrajudicial killing of 15 people.
The Mexican military and other security forces have repeatedly been accused in recent years of carrying out torture and extrajudicial killings in the wake of ramped up militarization and other security measures in the so-called war on drugs over the past decade.
According to Amnesty International, complaints of torture more than doubled in 2014 to over 2,400 cases, while thousands more incidents likely remain unreported due to fear among victims and their families.