OAXACA – VIDEO-TAPED TESTIMONY OF VICTIM OF TORTURE

At www.rightsaction.org/oaxaca, you can download and watch a 25-minute
interview (Spanish, with English sub-titles) with Porfirio Domínguez
Muñozcano, a Oaxacan arquitect almost beaten to death by Mexican ‘security’
forces.

Porfirio’s testimony was taped by members of the 1st Emergency Humanitarian
Delegation to Oaxaca, December 16-22, 2006. (Below, we reproduce the written
text of his testimony)

Porfirio is an extremely courageous man who is publicly denouncing what
happened to himself, demanding justice for all victims of Oaxaca state
repression.

Please re-distribute and re-publish this testimony, far ‘n’ wide. To make
tax-deductible donations to the Oaxaca Emergency Relief Fund, see below.

Please consider joining the 2nd Emergency Humanitarian Delegation to Oaxaca,
February 10-16, 2007:  info@oaxacasolidarity.org.

===

Testimony – PORFIRIO DOMINGUEZ MUNOZCANO (Oaxaca City, December 24, 2006)

Good morning. My name is Porfirio Domínguez Muñozcano. I am an architect.
My professional credential is number 1379284. All of my life … for 16
years, I have been an architect, working in this profession.

On Saturday, Nov. 25, at approximately 5 pm, I left my house in my car to go
print plans that I had on a disk, at a business that is located on Reforma
Street, between Morelos and Independencia. Upon arriving in the city center,
I parked my car on the corner of Reforma and Constitución Berrio Saval (?).
>From there, and I started walking toward the business where I needed to go
to print my plans.

Once I arrived at the business, I printed out the plans, at about 5:30pm.
>From there, I started walking back. Upon returning to the intersection of
Reforma St and Constitución St, upon crossing the street, I could sense when
I turned around, that troops of the PFP [Federal Preventive Police] were
advancing from south to north, coming towards where I was standing.

And being in that location, my only reaction was to move back against one of
the walls of the Hemeroteca, a building that was at that intersection of
Reforma and Constitución, next to the Santo Domingo church; and this troop
of police came running towards the place where I was. And I was not the only
person there; there were about 80 to 100 people were in that area. Then,
without any motive for doing so, they started to detain people. I wanted to
explain to them that I was a civil servant and that I had nothing to do with
what was going on at the time.

HOW MANY WERE THERE IN THE TROOP OF PFP WHO CAME RUNNING TOWARDS YOU?
The platoon had approximately 20 to 25 people.

AND WHEN THEY CAME RUNNING, WERE THEY MARCHING IN FORMATION OR RUNNING?
Running, running.

It was approximately 6:30 pm when I was detained and the first blow I
received was with a baton to the head. And with those two – they gave me two
blows to the head – I lost consciousness.

WHEN THEY CAME RUNNING TOWARDS YOU AND DETAINED YOU, WHAT DID THEY SAY? WERE
THEY GIVING ORDERS?
No, they didn’t say a single word. They simply came with the intention of
detaining all the people they found in that area.

BEFORE BEATING YOU WITH A BATON, WERE THEY BEATING MANY OTHER PEOPLE?
Yes.

And these people from the PFP were shooting tear gas into the air as they
came. Many people lost consciousness from breathing in that substance and
couldn’t know if there was any motive for their detention. In my case, as I
said, with those two blows to the head I was left unconscious. I was
unconscious for approximately 2 hours, during the entire process of my
transfer from Santo Domingo to the zócalo, or central plaza.

YOU REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE ZÓCALO?
In the zócalo. At the moment that I regained consciousness, my head was
already bandaged. I was very beaten. My face was very inflamed. This eye
was almost completely closed [indicating his left eye]. I had big bruises
all over my body. And when I woke up, I didn’t have my shoes any more, my
cell phone was gone, as was a camera that I was carrying. I no longer had
my driver’s license, my vehicle registration, or my voter registration card
– all of the documentation that I usually carry on me. I had nothing, none
of that documentation.

WHEN YOU REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS, WHAT DID YOU SEE? HOW MANY POLICE OFFICERS
WERE THERE GUARDING YOU? HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE DETAINED WITH YOU? WERE
THEY LYING ON THE GROUND? WERE THEY SITTING?
All of us were lying on the ground face down. When I lifted up my head a
little, I could tell that there were many people who were lying face down,
under the same conditions I was in. And we were surrounded by many, many
agents of the Federal Preventative Police in that area because that was the
place that the Federal Preventative Police were stationed to defend.

Upon recovering consciousness, I began to notice that the agents of the PFP
were beginning to transfer the compañeros to an unknown destination. Many
were being taken in buses, pickup trucks, and in my case, I was taken with
others and we were put on top of each other – we were put on top of each
other, one on top of the other – and, well, they took us towards an unknown
destination. And during this entire trip, they were constantly threatening
us, psychologically torturing us, and hitting us with the weapons they were
carrying at the time. They were kicking us and hitting us with the butts of
their weapons. They stepped on our fingers, our heads. These people truly
created a situation of psychological torture for us.

WHEN THEY PUT YOU IN – WAS IT A TRUCK?
A pickup truck.

HOW MANY DETAINED PEOPLE WERE THERE IN THE PICKUP TRUCK?
There were about 4 or 5 of us. We were lying face-down. I was on the
bottom, and then there were two other people on top of us and I don’t know
how many people were on top of them, but that is how they took us.

WAS THERE EVER A MOMENT WHEN THEY TOLD YOU WHY THEY WERE TAKING YOU?
No, they didn’t tell us anything. The theme of the journey was simply
torture. Then there was a time when they parked for about 2 hours and they
told us that a helicopter was coming for us, and that it was either going to
take us to an unknown destination or that they were going to throw us out of
the helicopter and that would be the end of us. They were always constant
threatening us throughout the whole journey.

I know the city of Oaxaca very well, and I could hear what the PFP were
saying. From what they were saying, I began to realize that they were
probably taking us to the Women’s Prison at Tanivet, Tlacolula.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE A LITTLE AND POINT OUT WHAT YOUR WOUNDS ARE?
Well, look – the two scars that I have here on my head – at that time they
were bleeding. But the most powerful blow that I received was in my eyes.
They fractured my left eye socket, as the doctors call it. This was what
damaged me the most, because I almost lost my eye and all of these bruises
that I have here from the constant blows that they were giving me are marks
that are still not going away.

AND WERE YOU ALL SWOLLEN TOO?
Yes, and all of this was swollen – this whole part of my body. On my arm,
you can see it is still purple from the beating. Here are some cuts from
jabs they gave us. My knee is the same. All over our bodies – in my case,
every part of my body was assaulted. They damaged the whole bottom part
beneath my eye so that I’m slowly losing vision, and then I have these
bruises on my arms and other parts of the body. I was, in my case, hit
everywhere, all over my body.

SO THEN YOU ARRIVED AT THE PRISON?
Yes. All along the way they were trying to disorient us so that we wouldn’t
realize where we were really going. They spent a lot of time taking off-road
trails and then they finally ended up on a paved road. From what the police
were saying, I started figuring out that they were taking us to the prison
at Tlacolula.

Then, around 2 or 3 in the morning, we arrived at the prison and I realized
that there were many people that they had detained. At that moment, they
were talking about 74 men, 16 women, and 8 to 10 children – children, minors
who had been taken to this prison.

AT THE BEGINNING ALL OF YOU WERE IN ONE PLACE?
Yes.

DID THE DETAINED PEOPLE THAT YOU SAW THERE ALL HAVE SIGNS OF HAVING BEEN
BEATEN AND ATTACKED, TOO?
Yes, everyone did. There were even people who they kept beating more as they
were taken in to the prison.

YOU SAW THIS?
Yes, exactly. They didn’t do it to me, probably because I was already very,
very badly beaten. I was one of the people most badly beaten at the time.

Well, then they took us in to the prison. The police were intimidating us
all along. We had to keep our heads down the whole time – we were not
allowed to lift up our heads the whole way, until they put us into cells – 5
people to each cell. So we were in one of the cells. We were the people who
were the most badly beaten. But among those five people, I was always the
most notorious for all of the blows I had received.

DURING THE WHOLE PROCESS OF PUTTING YOU INTO CELLS, DID THEY EVER PROCESS
YOU – GETTING YOUR NAMES, PAPERS, ETC.?
No. They just put us into our cells. But when we first arrived, they asked
us our names, they asked us our personal information and all of that. But
once we were in our cells, not anymore…

AND UP TO THAT MOMENT THEY HADN’T TOLD YOU WHY YOU WERE ALL DETAINED OR
ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
They didn’t tell us anything when we were in prison all day Saturday, and
all day Sunday. All they gave us was one meal, until Sunday night when the
Public Ministry arrived to take our initial statements. I personally
declared some of what I’m telling you right now.

WAS IT THE STATE PUBLIC MINISTRY, OR THE FEDERAL?
The State Public Ministry. After they took our statements, they read us the
reasons that, according to them, we had been detained. They accused us of
burning of buildings, sedition, assault and…well, right now I don’t
remember, but the most important charges were burning buildings, sedition
and assault.

ASSAULT AGAINST POLICE OFFICERS?
Exactly.

DURING ALL THIS TIME YOU STILL HADN’T RECEIVED ANY TREATMENT?
No, not yet.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYE?
Well, when I arrived at the prison, I was still bleeding from my arm and I
didn’t receive any treatment for the blows I received until Sunday afternoon
when they took me to the infirmary and gave me tranquilizers. They gave me
some pills to ease the pain, but they didn’t perform any sort of immediate
medical intervention at that time.

So, when they were reading us the charges they were accusing us of, the
majority of us were not in agreement with them because we didn’t have
anything to do with it and we hadn’t participated in what they were charging
us for. And they were going to add these charges on to all of the
statements we had given at the time.

I was there for two nights and one day, and during that whole time we were
held incommunicado. They did not give us the chance to communicate with our
families. Some of our family members had already found out that we were at
the prison at Tlacolula, and they came on Sunday night, wanting to visit
their family members. But the Federal Preventive Police started chasing off
our family members, intimidating them, saying they would arrest them, put
them through the same process and into the same situation as we were in. So
out of fear, our family members had to leave. There were many people who had
wanted to visit us because when they found out that we were detained on
Sunday night, our family members wanted to come in and visit us. But no,
they did not give access to our family members to visit.

WERE YOU BEATEN FURTHER OR NOT ANYMORE?
No, not anymore.

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO LEAVE THE PRISON TO RECEIVE MEDICAL TREATMENT?
At dawn on Monday, at approximately 5 am, they woke us all up. They made us
get into line, they handcuffed us and then they took us onto a bus that was
waiting. The bus was followed by a PFP pickup truck. We didn’t know where
they were taking us because here the government very often makes people
change prisons so that our families do not know exactly where we are.

So I was already on the bus when one of the guards called my name and told
me to get off the bus that all of my compañeros were already on. I got off
the bus and became even more afraid because feared that they were going to
isolate me from the whole rest of the group or even ‘disappear’ me at that
moment. Upon returning to the prison office, they told me that they were
going to take me to the civil hospital along with four children who they
took to the Juvenile Detention Center here in the city of Oaxaca. They took
me to Aurelio Valdivieso Civil Hospital.

Once I was in the hospital, I received medical attention. What they did was
to perform surgery on my lower left eye socket. I was charged 7000 pesos and
released on December 8th, even though I was in no condition to be released
from the hospital, because I had – I still have to this date – lost all
sensation on the left side of my face. I am still not completely recovered.

So once they had performed the surgery, I was released. On December 8th they
released me when I was still in no condition to be released and they took me
back to the Tlacolula Women’s Prison. I arrived at the prison around 9 or 10
at night and was held there for another week though I was in no condition to
be there because I still ran many risks considering the surgery they had
done on my eye.

CAN YOU SUMMARIZE HOW THAT WEEK WAS WHEN YOU WERE IN PRISON AGAIN? DID YOU
RECEIVE MORE BEATINGS, OR WAS IT MORE OR LESS CALM?
No, they didn’t beat me any more. In the hospital they had given me some
prescriptions and some medications that I had bought. I brought these to the
prison infirmary and there they would give me these drops and some creams
that I had been prescribed.

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET OUT?
On December 15th, they told me at 8:30am that I was going to be
conditionally released. They did not give time to speak with my lawyer or
with my family. At approximately 10:30am they made me take everything out
of my cell and just as I was they took me out of the prison and left me
almost right on the side of the highway. From there I got back to the city
of Oaxaca just hitchhiking, and finally asking for money so that I could
take a taxi back to the house of one of my family members.

NOBODY EVEN KNEW YOU WERE BEING RELEASED?
No one knew. I was released conditionally, meaning I was released with
bail. But I didn’t even post the bail, and I don’t know who did. It may
have even been the government itself. I don’t know who posted bail.

WHEN THEY RELEASED YOU DID THEY RETURN ALL OF THE THINGS THEY HAD TAKEN FROM
YOU WHEN YOU WERE DETAINED – YOUR WALLET, ETC.?
No, nothing. They didn’t return anything to me. When I was there at the
prison at Tlacolula I pointed out that they had not given me my belongings
they had taken. They didn’t pay attention to me at all regarding the matter
and to this day I have no identification.

GIVE US A LITTLE LIST OF ALL THE THINGS THEY HAVE NOT RETURNED TO YOU?
My cell phone, a camera, my driver’s license, my voter registration card,
vehicle registration, and a bank card. And I was carrying money on me –
about 6,000 or 7,000 pesos in my wallet – they haven’t given that back to me
either.

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET BACK HOME AGAIN – HITCH-HIKING?
Exactly. And people very nicely, seeing the condition that I was in – I was
badly beaten – offered me 5 or 10 pesos so that I would be able to take a
taxi from where they left me to here. And when I arrived in the city I was
able to ask a woman for 50 pesos so that I could pay for a taxi. And that is
how I arrived at house of some of my relatives. Once I was at my relatives’
house, I called here to talk to the priest, Father Uvi, and I called the
Human Rights League. It was that same afternoon, on December 15th, that I
was able to talk to them and we held a press conference to explain
everything that had happened to me.

WHAT ARE THE STEPS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY TAKING TO SEEK JUSTICE,
REPARATIONS, AND COMPENSATION?
What we are doing right now is starting to gather all of the information to
see if it is possible to take a public denunciation to the national and
international press, to expose wherever possible this whole process and my
being a victim of injustice. I also want to tell you at this time that I am
still in medical treatment for my condition, and I am paying all of the
medical bills for the treatment I am receiving.

ARE YOU AND OTHERS TRYING TO BRING LEGAL CASES AGAINST THE STATE? IF YOU
ARE, DO YOU EXPECT TO ACHIEVE RESULTS THROUGH THE COURT SYSTEM?
Well, as I am not the only person who was a victim of this injustice – we
are many, many people – we are working together to present a class action
suit so that it will be more powerful and have greater legal weight on the
state level.

WHAT HOPE DO YOU HAVE OF RECEIVING SOME FORM OF JUSTICE, REPARATIONS AND
COMPENSATION EITHER IN AN INDIVIDUAL CASE OR IN A CLASS ACTION SUIT WITH
OTHERS?
Really, fighting within the system here on a national level and in Oaxaca to
obtain a favorable result for me and the other compañeros is difficult. But
we are going to do everything possible, and we are working with the support
of NGOs who can help us with all of the necessary legal work. We would like
to recuperate everything that we’ve lost: we lost jobs, we were deprived of
our liberty. As an architect, I am a professional and I really refuse to
accept this situation here in Oaxaca.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FINAL COMMENTS OR OBSERVATIONS?
Well, I would simply like to say to all of the media on a state, national
and international level that the system of government here in Mexico is a
system that in no way works in favor of the people who are most in need, the
people of the humble means. And you, being here in Oaxaca, can confirm to
them that there are many Federal Preventive Police occupying the city and
that’s the only way that they are able to govern – by limiting our human
rights as people who live here in the city of Oaxaca.

*******

Please join the 2nd Emergency-Educational Delegation to Oaxaca, February
10-16, 2007 – contact: Oaxaca Solidarity Network,  info@oaxacasolidarity.org.

OAXACA EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND:

Rights Action is raising funds to support the humanitarian relief needs of
victims of torture and family members of victims of repression. Make tax
deductible check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to: UNITED STATES: Box
50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887; CANADA: 509 St. Clair Ave W, box73527,
Toronto ON, M6C-1C0. CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: www.rightsaction.org.