Mexico’s Human Rights Commission Defends Los Zetas Cartel: ‘They Were Tortured’

Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas and Coahuila to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Coahuila’s “JM Martinez”.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila —  Mexico’s Human Rights‘ Commission has issued a damming report claiming that a group of Los Zetas cartel kidnappers were tortured, raped and murdered by local and state police officers.

The report is based on the February 12, 2013 arrest of various kidnappers and the rescue of two kidnapping victims in the city of Torreon. While the kidnappers were eventually convicted and remain in jail, the report makes claims of torture by authorities. The allegations by the commission claim that the convicted kidnappers were beaten for hours, given electrical shocks and forced to watch as a woman kidnapper was raped, the report claims. One of the kidnappers died in police custody from apparent torture while the case was covered up.

In their recently published findings, Mexico’s Human Rights commission (known as CNDH in Mexico) asked that the police officers in the case be investigated and prosecuted and that authorities implement protocols to identify torture in this border state.

The report accuses Coahuila state officials and investigators of doctoring or manufacturing reports to cover up the torture caused by municipal police officers.

The Government of Coahuila issued a written response  claiming that they accepted the findings and they were carrying out the needed investigations.

The report briefly mentions the kidnapping victims and does not go into detail about what happened to them or what would have been their likely end had they not been rescued from the hands of the Los Zetas drug cartel.  Breitbart Texas recently published the results of a three month investigation that revealed that the Los Zetas drug cartel had been able to kidnap, torture, murder and incinerate hundreds of victims throughout the small northern communities of the state. The true scope of the atrocities by Los Zetas remains unknown.

While often quoted by mainstream news outlet in Mexico, the CNDH has fallen out of favor with average citizens particularly in northern states that have been ravaged by drug cartels. Various individuals that Breitbart Texas spoke to in Coahuila and Tamaulipas claim that the CNDH is quick to defend cartel members but never lifts a finger to defend “real victims” from Mexican drug cartels.