TORTURED IN MEXICO
Some details are beginning to leak out in Mexico City of the torture inflicted on Adolfo Gilly and the members of the Posadista group who were arrested and charged with seeking to overthrow the Mexican government and establish a Communist regime. [See World... Qutlook May 13.]. mos ree
Gilly, who is known in: many countries for his articles on the Cuban Revolution and the Guatemalan. guerrilla movement, was apparently one of the main targets of the political police. They submitted him-to torture for three days in an effort to. make him "confess" that he belonged to "the Fourth International."
-He was submitted to seven sessions of beatings on the chest, head and kidneys. After one of the worst beatings, he was handcuffed. for an entire night in a sitting posture in a chair. He was also submerged under water until he reached the point of drowning.
-i.; Unable to break him by outright physical ‘torture, the police threatened to drive Him out on the highway and shoot him. This. . threat likewise failed to have the- desired effect.
Gilly was then taken to a higher official who told him that. Tye what they planned to do was take him to the Guatemalan border where he would be turned over to: “the Guatemalan police, who. would immedi — ately execute him. ;
This seemed to Gilly to be a likely outcome as he was aware that the reactionary Guatemalan government would like to get him because of the articles he has written. He therefore agreed to state that he had attended:.a meeting of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (Revolutionary Workers" party], the. name of the Posadista group: in Mexico. , wd J
Both he and the other victims who had been compelled under torture to make similar "confessions," repudiated these when they were finally brought before the presiding judge.
> The Mexican authorities, of ‘course, are engaging in a witch-_ hunt. The target at the time.of the arrests was the militant student, movement on the campus of the University of Mexico.
‘The arrest of Gilly and the others was staged at the height of student demonstrations that forced the resignation of the head
of ‘the university administration. The newspapers ran screaming headlines about "Trotskyists" plotting to overthrow the government, claiming that these "agitators" were behind the demonstrations . of. the students. s
It also appears that the Mexican government is worried over acrise.in social unrest in the country and the possibility that it may strengthen the left. The current witch-hunt against a small unpopular group could be designed as the opening move against much larger : ‘groups, particularly if they prove incapable of understanding the meaning - of the blow struck against the Posadistas and fail to rally in their defense despite ideological -differences.
Consequently it is important to let ‘the “Mexican authorities know that this policy will prove unprofitable. Protests should be lodged immediately with the Mexican. embassy in Washington, D.C. and withthe judge who has: jurisdiction in the case: Sr. Eduardo Ferrer McGregor, Juez Primero de Distrito en Material Penal, Bucareli 24, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.
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