RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Police Brutality Ingrained, Say Rights Groups

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 1998 (IPS) - Police brutality and impunity in Argentina have cast a growing shadow over democracy in that country, according to two major human rights groups in a report released here Wednesday.

The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Argentina’s Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), charge that police commit excessive violence against criminal suspects and detainees, including torture, “disappearance,” and summary execution.

The 250-page report documents 41 cases, most of which took place during 1995-97. It concludes that judicial and civilian authorities do not exercise enough control over both the federal and provincial police forces which are in urgent need of reform and professionalisation.

“Currently, too many police agents, instead of fighting crime and apprehending criminals, have become criminals themselves, contributing to the climate of fear in many cities,” according to CELS director, Martin Abregu.

“Police forces must be made professional and be subject to independent, external control to curb police brutality in Argentina,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the HRW’s Americas division, who went to Buenos Aires for the report’s release.

“Reform at all levels – federal and provincial – is necessary both to comply with international standards and to make police forces more efficient and productive,” he added.

The report, ‘Exacerbating Insecurity: Police Brutality in Argentina’ scores statements on the issue made by President Carlos Menem. In an interview in ‘Clarin’ last month, he said the solution to controlling crime was a “hard line” and that “some human rights organisations may protest, but I think that criminals have more protection here than the police or the people.”

“Such statements are counter-productive at a time when it is necessary to professionalise police forces and hold officers accountable for abuses,” the two organisations said.

Their report, published in both Spanish and English, notes that police agents have been implicated in two of Argentina’s most sensational recent crimes – the July 1994 bombing of the headquarters of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA), and the January 1997 abduction and brutal murder of journalist Jose Luis Cabezas. He had exposed misconduct by the Buenos Aires police.

Both crimes are “grave examples of the extent of the problem of human rights abuses committed by police agents,” which prompted prompted CELS and HRW to produce a joint report to illustrate the gravity of the question of police abuse in Argentina.

“This report demonstrates that the problem of police brutality is not an isolated or occasional one, but rather an ingrained practice in police systems…”

The cases covered in the report “demonstrate that the Argentine police frequently use brutal force, operate with a deep- rooted concept of corporate complicity, and are subject to very weak external oversight,” That applies to all 24 of Argentina’s regional police forces as well as the federal police, the report says.

The police are widely and strongly distrusted by the general public because of their inefficiency, lack of professionalism, and a long history of corruption and acting outside the law, the report says. It details five categories of violent police practices.

– The use of lethal force by police agents on routine patrols, “razzias” (population control operations), and control of demonstrations.

In one example, 17-year-old Alejando Mirabete was shot at point- blank range while being held down by plain-clothes police from whom he tried to run away after being asked for his documents. The police apparently planted a gun under the victim’s body.

– police abuse in cases when the police respond to a suspected crime but fire their weapons indiscriminately. In such cases, according to the report, the police routinely claim that they fired their guns in “shoot-outs” with the suspects or “by accident.”

In one example, 12-year-old Ramon Martinez Monzon and his seven- year-old brother Jesus were watching TV inside their shack in Greater Buenos Aires as police officers were responding to an attempted robbery at a grocery store nearby. In the apparent belief that suspects had entered the Monzon house, 16 police surrounded it and began firing, killing Jesus and wounding Ramon. They later claimed that a shoot-out had occurred and apparently planted a gun nearby.

– The third category involves cases of summary killings, including by off-duty officers who are permitted to carry their guns. In at least one case, that of 18-year-old Sergio Perez, there was evidence to suggest that he was killed in retaliation for testifying in a murder case against a police officer the previous year. He had received repeated death threats after his testimony, according to the report.

– A fourth category of cases involves forced disappearances of individuals who were apparently under police detention.

Bricklayer Andres Nunez was detained in 1990 by police investigating a bicycle theft. He was tortured to death in an effort to make him confess and his body was burned and buried in a water tank. For five years police denied he had ever been in custody until a judge who had refused to hear testimony from a witness was removed from the case.

– The final category of cases involve victims under police custody when they either are killed or gravely injured. Killings often are the result of torture, including beatings, electric shock, and asphyxiation, to force confessions for crimes.

The most frequent victims of such conduct, according to the report, are individuals who have been detained by police for unconventional reasons, including the verification of identity and “suspected criminal background.” Giving police the authority to detain people on such grounds, according to the rights groups, encourages abuses.