Shining a light on state violence

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There are investigative newsrooms like TBIJ dotted around the world. Lots of us are in touch with each other. Sometimes that’s for big collaborations, and sometimes it’s to hear inspiring stories and learn from each other. This week, I spoke to two newsrooms on the other side of the world to see what they’ve been up to. One was Quinto Elemento in Mexico, and the other was IDL Reporteros in Peru, land of pisco sours. 

First, Quinto Elemento. This spring, Gabriela Martínez Córdova, a Mexican journalist, published an investigation revealing that three women were sexually tortured while in prison. Her journalism ultimately sparked authorities from the state of Baja California to acknowledge what had happened.

All three women – Denís, Prima and Laura – had been separately arrested and accused of kidnapping by a specialist police unit established to combat the rise in abductions across the country. In 2014, the year Denís was arrested, someone was kidnapped in Mexico every six hours and authorities were under pressure to act. A year later, the Baja California anti-kidnapping unit would be commended for its great work – but it had been extracting forced confessions via torture. 

Gabriela told me: “Reporting this type of abuse is complicated in Mexico because you are up against security agencies and it is well known that the majority of attacks on journalists come from government officials.”

These anti-kidnapping agents in particular, she said, “are not only officers with a history of violent behaviour but they also have the equipment, the training, the support, to act how they want.”

Denís and Prima were eventually acquitted and released – Prima after two years and Denís after almost 10, having spent her daughter’s entire childhood behind bars. But Laura, who signed a confession obtained through torture, has been in pre-trial detention since 2011 and is still awaiting sentencing. 

The agents allegedly involved or complicit in their torture – identified in various reports by the state commission on human rights – have not only escaped punishment, but in some cases been promoted to high-ranking positions within the police and Prosecutor's Office. 

In Mexico, Gabriela said, “torture is a systematic fact. It is not an isolated fact, it is not something that happened just once.” She felt compelled to prove that the women’s claims were true and make sure they couldn’t be ignored. 

An investigation into Denís’s allegations of torture had been opened in 2014, but in the 10 years since not a single person had been charged. When Gabriela’s article was published, however, the authorities in Baja California acknowledged that Denís and the other women had been tortured. A review of both the case and the agents allegedly involved was announced. It’s a step in the right direction. 

But she seemed most pleased about the effects of her investigation on the survivors themselves. “With Denís, I see a transformation. Enabling her to tell her story has made her into a woman who has regained power over herself,” Gabriela said. 

“The same is true in the case of Prima who is already seeking reparation for the damage. She has been able to talk about all of this on her own terms. And also Laura too. That part makes me feel satisfied.”

“Ayacucho, my city, is a symbol of the political violence which happened in Peru between 1980 and 2000. It was the centre of the two-decade confrontation between the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso and the armed forces, which caused the death of around 69,000 people, according to estimates from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

I was born and raised in Ayacucho during those years, so I know first-hand the impact of war and the open wounds it leaves on the population. 

At the end of 2022, the army took control of the city and extrajudicially executed 10 people who were protesting in the streets against the government. I felt the impulse to document those deaths to ensure that those responsible are quickly identified.

The experience of living during years of political violence instilled fear in the people of Ayacucho. It was difficult for us to convince the sources to hand over videos, photographs, documents or any other material that incriminates the army, but in the end we managed to convince them that this was the only way to document the crimes committed. 

I believe that our investigation contributed to the victims’ families having tools to demand justice in court. Although no soldier has so far been convicted for these events, the Prosecutor’s Office has made progress with the investigations and is getting closer to filing charges against them.

The Peruvian government tried to deny the facts by blaming the protesters themselves for the deaths in Ayacucho. That is why it was crucial to identify the context surrounding each of the deaths. Fortunately, we found videos in which the military was seen aiming and shooting directly at the protesters. After we published, the government could no longer deny the obvious.

What happened broke the trust between the state and the people of Ayacucho. This is dangerous because Ayacucho is a region that faces problems like drug trafficking and illegal mining, which require the presence of the state to stop it growing and becoming a source of greater violence.

The army would never have dared to shoot 10 people in Lima. While Lima is the centre of political and economic power in my country, poor regions like Ayacucho are not important to the government or the major media. Those who live in these regions are second-level citizens. My job is to rebel against that contempt and show the abuses that the government commits when no one is watching.”

Muchas gracias hombres y mujeres. We might think the landscape in the UK doesn’t involve such extreme state violence, and maybe we’d be right. But we’re not immune to it either – TBIJ has reported for years on police who abuse their power and victimise the vulnerable.

Whose job is it to ensure that police obey the law, and to hold them to account when they don’t? In part, the journalists like Gabriela and César who report on these instances of shocking misconduct. If you hear of any investigations like this that you think are particularly impressive, wherever they are in the world, I’d love to hear about them. 

Hasta luego!