The Ethics Committee against Torture: "In Chile they Torture."

Source: http://notascect.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/carta-a-organismos-internacionales-en-chile-se-tortura/

Published on May 20, 2013

Letter to International Organizations in Chile they Torture

Dear Sirs, Ladies, Members of organizations fighting against torture:

The Ethics Committee against Torture has become aware of the use of torture on Eliseo Ñirripil Cayupan, 27 years old, belonging to the Community Mateo Ñiripil "Autonomous" Lof Muco, commune of Lautaro, Region IX, who today is a Mapuche Political Prisoner, held in prison in Temuco, currently held four months in pretrial detention.

At the time of his arrest Eliseo Ñirripil was beaten,  his pectoral areas pinched with pliers and his head submerged in an irrigation canal, a torture known as the submarine. 

The complaint requests to investigate and apply sanctions against state officials belonging to the forces of the militarized police of Chile, Juan Gustavo Escobar Daza and Alberto Fernando Cortés Zavala and against all those found responsible as perpetrators, accomplices or abettors of these facts constituting a crime. 

We denounce before the international bodies that Chile is not yet integrated into the Penal Code the definition of the crime of torture as mandated by the International Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which the Chilean State has signed and ratified, meaning that the investigations are kept in the figure of "unlawful coercion" and do not get the sanctions that the crime of torture, defined as a crime against humanity, deserves, therefore this crime remains a bastion of impunity, on the other hand, the Chilean State has not established the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture considered in the Optional Protocol to the International Convention, which requires the operation of a national commission whose primary objective is to prevent and investigate reported acts of torture, constituting itself in places where it is presumed that a person may be subjected to torture by state agents.

Therefore, we request the international institutions that fight against torture, to intervene before the Government of Chile in order to make the fullest investigation and punishment of those responsible for this crime against humanity which unfortunately becomes more common in our country and that affects especially the members of the Mapuche communities in the IX and X region of the country and mobilized social actors  as have been the complaints made by students who have been kidnapped and tortured in vehicles by state agents belonging to the civilian police; complaint of torture is attached, pictures of Eliseo Ñirripil and public denunciation made ​​by the Ethical Commission Against Torture after the series of kidnappings and tortures that affected students and to which, the very National Human Rights Institute of Chile has become a party filing a complaint of torture, as presented in the note below.

We express our gratitude to all individuals and institutions who oppose the practice of torture.

Very sincerely,

Juana Aguilera Jaramillo

Chairwoman

Ethical Commission Against Torture