In the house #808 on Third Avenue in Yanga, Veracruz, we (Luis Ricardo, Hilario Martin, Hermelinda, Rosa and I) were working in our balcony-making and soldering workshop. It was about 5pm when suddenly a great quantity of (Attorney General and State) police began jumping over the fence and coming through the door. With weapons in hand they demanded that we surrender; they threw us down on the floor, and they handcuffed us. Immediately I was taken from the house and shoved into a car.
With beatings and cusses they said to me: "Now you're going to hell". Then the beatings on all sides began in the car. They took me to a place (I don't know where since they immediately covered my eyes after they put me in the car) where in the back seat of the car they put me face up and among four of them they began to pour "Tehuacan" water into my nose while covering my mouth, thus eliminating any possibility of my being able to breathe and almost asphyxiating me. The first time that there was a slight pause I took the opportunity to ask for help, which provoked an even greater rage in them. They immediately and with great energy began to beat me again, followed by another treatment of the "Tehuacan" water: "That's what we're going to do to you until you tell us everything, son of a bitch" they said to me, while I felt that my lungs were going to burst. I was at the point of asphyxiation when I again felt a small, I mean small, break when they again paused in their beating. But my stomach became nauseated, and I threw up everything I had inside it, but since they did not allow me to turn my head, everything stayed in my mouth and nose, causing me to swallow again what I had vomitted.
In this small pause all of this took place, but almost immediately they began again the operation of the "Tehuacan". Among these operations and the threats of:"You are going to shit, son of a bitch", "We are going to shoot you over there, and no one is going to come to claim your body", among others. I was almost convinced that this really was going to be my end. Fortunately the operation of "Tehuacan" water stopped again. Almost desperate because they were not getting from me what they wanted, they pulled me up by my hair, and they made the following threats: "Don't be an stupid ass-hole, you're going to hell", "You are going to get pneumonia, and die", "Don't be a martyr, we can take you to good doctor, but if you don't cooperate, you're fucked, you already have a fever", and it was true, I began to feel a shivering throughout my whole body. I felt my face burning, and a cold that chilled to the bone, --sometimes I had heard talk about torture, but I never imagined that it would feel like it did. I thought about what I had been through and about what was coming. And what came next was a series of beatings on my ribs and my head.
For sure I was going to appear a little stupid, since the judicial agents were wearing some enormous rings, but I noticed that when they beat me around my head with those they did not leave any mark but--ouch! How much my damaged ribs hurt, and at the time of the beatings, they also continued threatening me. In one case I was at the point of losing consciousness, but that worried them, because they thought maybe I was dying. But later--the car had begun to move forward--their violent attitude returned, and when the car stopped again, everyone got out. One of them turned me over on my back (seated in the car) and tightened the handcuffs so much that they almost cut into my flesh. Then he immediately began to pull me by the handcuffs, and I could almost feel the blood begin to run from the injuries that the pressure and brutal dragging caused.
Dragging along behind him, making me fall, which caused more pain on my buttocks and shoulders (since the guy who was dragging me did not let go of the handcuffs, so my arms got doubled back and almost dislocated my shoulders), they put me in a room (a cell) with only one wall--the other three being bars--where they took off the handcuffs and put in its place a blindfold. Then they stripped me. Then they again threw me face in the middle of an old blanket, and then wrapped me in it. Then four of them lifted me up (this I guessed because my eyes were always covered), and then they began again the operation of "Tehuacan" water.
It is so horrible that one grasps for any possibility of living--even hoping that one of them gets called by his superiors and ends the torment--but everything has its reason to be. They wanted to know something, and the torment had to continue, perhaps they began thinking or were convinced when I told them that the only thing that I knew was that they had sent me to take care of the house, and that I didn't know anything else. Perhaps they ran out of water because then they began kicking me, while I was still wrapped in the blanket, in such a way that it seemed like I was a soccer ball.
Later between insults and threats they unwound the blanket, and although I was still naked, 3 or 4 of them lifted me and threw me almost 2 feet. Then they jumped on me and squeezed my lower parts, causing a total flood of words and the greatest stretching of all of my muscles and tendons, principally those in my legs. This action was repeated for various minutes that it appeared that they were playing with a great human spring. This action caused me to be left so completely debilitated and full of pain that when they again hit me on my head, I was at the point of losing consciousness. Perhaps they decided that it had been sufficient, because they left me sprawled on the floor for about 15 minutes.
Later they lifted me up and they gave me my clothes that I couldn't put on, since I felt that if I moved I would break into a million pieces (that's how bad the pain was). Finally I got them on, and then they took me, with my feet tied, to an empty room when they sat me down and they invited me to rest and "pull myself together".
I thought: Perhaps I have foot in life and another in the grave, because if they are inviting me to rest, then I should consider myself in the worst case.
I stayed there for almost two hours, during which I had to tolerate insults and threats. Later with surprise I started to listen, since they had put my companeros in a room next to mine. I heard clearly the beatings that they were getting and how they complained. While I was listening to the beatings, first one and then another police officer came in to say to me: "You are a bastard and a stupid asshole. It's your fault that your companeros are here. It depends on you whether they continue to be fucked or they go out peacefully". For a moment I thought in the possibility of saying to them that: "That's fine, I'll stay but let them go", but then I thought: "I can't believe one millionth part of what these guys say or promise--how are they going to let the companeros go regardless of what I say! What I prefer to trust in is the courage and the trust of the companeros.
This torment, psychological for me and physical for the companeros, lasted almost an hour, bringing in other companeros and taking out the first ones, and during it I had one certainty: they (the police) knew alot already because with the papers that they had found in the house, they were going to begin to tie up loose ends. All they wanted was that I confirm what they already knew. And even though I tried to explain to them about my activities as a teacher and in the soldering workshop and some trips to Chiapas, they wanted more. Or in other words, they were never convinved by anything, and with a certain amount of fear I heard them come near me again, and then two police officers came in to lift me up and take me to their commander's office, where they videod me from head to foot (they took off the blindfold only to film me). While they were filming me, I heard one of them say: "The bastard has to look good, so that later they can't file a human rights complaint". Finally they finished filming, and they again blindfolded me. They took me out of this office and put me in a small truck where they stretched me out.
Along side of me I felt and heard that another companero was put in the truck, tied like me. Our heads smacked together. At the same time an undetermined amount of police got in the truck, I would guess that it was alot, because some of them had to sit on top of us because there wasn't "enough room". The truck began its journey, and after a half an hour it stopped, and they took us to take some sips (I was always afraid that they were going to do us in that way).
After about 15 minutes the truck began moving again. After about an hour we got to the Veracruz airport (according to their conversations they were taking us to the Military Camp #1). There we were turned over to a coronel of the Mexican Army, who along with another person took me to a place off to one side. There they threatened me, saying that my hour of death had arrived, but "We are going to give you a chance to run. If you save yourself, you'll be free, but if not, there you will stay", "clearly, you have to tell us everything before you can go". Since I had told them that I didn't have anything to say, the coronel put his pistol at my throat while the other beat my testicles. Before I could recuperate from the blow, they shoved me onto the plane, and by my sides sat the coronel and the other one going with me.
I ventured to ask them if my companeros were on the same plane, and they answered: yes, and they were going to have the same luck as I did, because we didn't cooperate. But that "I was the principal one responsible for their luck, so I shouldn't be an asshole and I should give them the chance to save themselves". During the flight the beatings weren't so bruising, but they were constant (more than anything with the famous ring on the head and ribs).
We arrived (I guess to the Military Camp #1). There they put us in some cells where they stripped us, I think to check our bodies, to see if there were marks. We were there for awhile, and then they took us to another place, which we got to after walking about 100 meters and going up two floors. (Clearly they took us one by one). There the questioning was a little more orderly--it appeared under the charge of a general. To say that was a little more orderly, what I mean to say is that when a question was asked, they waited for an answer. Clearly when I didn't respond quickly enough, another blow would come and when I answered with something that they didn't like, a blow would come.
During this interrogation there was an air of prepotency and sadism in the general, who said: "We are counting the lies. If you don't tell the truth to what we ask you, we are going give you electric shocks so that you remember..." (or would you prefer the shocks on your balls?, said another: "If you think you're a real man, we're even bigger bastards, because we have you and we're not going to leave you in peace until you give up everything or you give in". I told them: "I can't tell you anything else because simply, I do not know anything else", and invariably another kick or a blow with the ring to my head would come--fortunately they didn't give me electric shocks nor put the shocks on my balls; for sure, that general was a tall and strong man, because during one of his kicks he put his whole foot on my chest, and I swear that his shoe length was a little bit wider than my chest.
They tried this type of interrogation with me two times. Later they left me in the cell, saying that I should rest because what was coming next was really tough. But who could rest when a few meters away there was a tape player going at full blast. You feel like the only way you will get any rest is for your eardrums to burst. So it wasn't possible to rest.
That's the way we were in these cells for some time (we don't know how long). A time came when they took us out and they put us on a bus--I could tell that all of us were there--always with the blindfolds on our eyes. After the bus went for about a half hour, they took off our blindfolds and that's when we realized we were inside the Northern Prison.
It was 2pm on Wednesday February 8th when I left the house to buy some things that I needed. I returned around 6pm and everything seemed quiet from the outside. But when I went in, agents from the Attorney General's office were waiting for me. I immediately noticed that they had been beating and torturing my companeros. Then they asked me who I was and what my name was. I told them my name, and they responded: "He's the one we were waiting for". They grabbed me and five of them put handcuffs on me. One of them pulling my hair, two others had my arms, another grabbed from behind, and the other one in front of me interrogating me and slapping me. They covered my face with the shirt I had on, and they begin to beat me very fiercely, and since I wouldn't answer them, then one of them said: "Find something we can sit him down on".
It wasn't long before another one came with a piece of wood and an electric cable. They took off all my clothing, and they threw two pails of water on me. They begin to beat me a whole lot with the wood board on my stomach, on my buttocks, on my legs, on my calfs and on my feet. It got to a point that I fainted from the beatings, and that I wasn't aware of anything else for a good while. I woke up because they were beating my head around for some time. Later they tried to hang me with the electric cable. Then they wound it around my neck and tightened it so much that I thought I was going to be asphyxiated. They saw that I couldn't take any more, and they loosened it a little. But then they immediately began to tighten it again, along with cussing me out and threatening me, saying that I was going to die.
They kept us like that for 5 or 6 hours until they put us in a small truck, all piled on top of one another, feet and hands tied, blindfolded.
They took us to the Veracruz airport (according to what I heard). In those moments they brought us all together and they put us in a plane. I heard it said that we were going to Mexico, and from there I don't know where we went. Later I realized that we were in the Military Camp #1 where they kept us two nights and one day. All this time we were kept blindfolded. In this jail they treated us the same: beatings, cussings, and sleeplessness, since there was always a radio on at full blast which did not let us rest. They got us up time after time to make statements, and we would have to make statements, what they wanted us to say, because if we didn't, they beat us and threatened to kill us or to continue torturing us. So all of the statements were made under pressure.
On February 10th, we turned over to the Northern Prison and getting there, the blindfolds were taken off, and here they have treated us "a little better".