Warning: this documentary contains accounts of torture and images that viewers may find disturbing. It was made in close consultation with victims, their families, and the movements that support them.
Torture by law enforcement officials, including police officers and prison guards, is a systemic problem in Mexico. People are most vulnerable at the early stages of detention when torture is used to extract confessions and statements. These incriminating statements are then admitted in court, resulting in unfair trials and miscarriages of justice. Officials carrying out torture in Mexico’s prisons are almost never brought to justice.
Many of the people who have been tortured in Mexico’s prisons have not been convicted of a crime. The country has one of the highest pre-trial detention rates in the world, with around 40% of the prison population waiting for a trial. For women, the figures are even higher – half of the female prison population are waiting for a trial.
Fair Trials and IJPP have produced a toolkit in Spanish for defence attorneys representing clients who say they have been tortured during criminal proceedings. It has information for all stages of the criminal process and especially when asking for evidence obtained through torture to be excluded from criminal proceedings: https://www.fairtrials.org/publicatio….
