Urgent international appeal Chilean prisoners in Brazil

We call on you to take part in an urgent campaign to protect the 
physical and mental health of Mauricio Hernandez Norambuena, Alfredo 
Canales Moreno, Marco Rodrmguez Ortega and three other people whose 
identity has not yet been confirmed, detained in Sao Paulo for presumed 
involvement in the kidnapping of a Brazilian advertising agent.

According to reports of international organisations, torture is routinely 
practiced in Brazil in prisons and other places of detention The United 
Nations Special Rapporteur against Torture, Mr Nigel Rodley, in his report 
published by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations heard 
declarations of detainees of beatings with iron bars or truncheons, or 
having been given the "telephone", in particular during interrogations to 
obtain confessions in Sao Paulo in police cells.

In an office next to the interrogation room the Rapporteur found several 
iron bars, as the prisoners had indicated. The police first of all said 
they were objects to be used in tests of criminal investigation (pages 9 
and 10 of the report).

The Rapporteur adds "...tortures and similar mistreatment is committed in a 
general and systematic way in most parts of the country which the Special 
Rapporteur visited... It occurs in all phases of the detention: arrest, 
preliminary detention, other forms of provisional detention and in the 
prisons (page 61)".

These denunciations of the Rapporteur are confirmed by Amnesty 
International, which in a report of October 2001 said that torture in 
detention centres and prison in Brazil "is used as a means to obtain 
confessions, to dominate, humiliate and control the detainees ... torture 
takes place at the time of arrest, in police stations, in prisons and also 
in detention centres for minors."

A crucial factor is that it is a crime which almost always goes unpunished, 
as neither the internal disciplinary bodies nor, more importantly, the 
courts take any action.

Because of this and, given the seriousness of the crime of which the 
detainees are accused, given the fact that they are foreigners and that on 
the 5th of February the Consul General of Chile, Sr. Josi Cataldo was 
refused permission to visit them and review their physical and mental 
state, we demand that the Brazilian authorities respect the norms of 
respect for the fundamental rights of any person subject to their 
jurisdiction, whatever their condition or conduct.

We also call on the Chilean diplomatic and consular authorities to carry 
out all measures to ensure the full application of the "Convention against 
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of 
the United Nations, of which Brazil is a member.

This without prejudice to the application of all other international norms 
for the protection of human rights and which guarantee a fair trial.

Please write letters to:

President of the Republic of Brazil
Sr. Fernando Enrique Cardoso
E-mail: protocolo@planalto.gov.br

Ministry of Justice
Sr. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira F.
Explanadas dos Ministerios, Bloco T, Ed. sede,
CEP 70064-900 . Brasilia DF
E-mail: gabinetemj@mj.gov.br

State Secretariate for Human Rights
Sr. Paulo Sirgio de Moraes Sarmento P.
sedh@mj.gov.br
Fax: 55-61-2232260

Thanks

Lucho Riquelme
On behalf of Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network.