these territorial [...] security policies appear. [T]he police detain them for several reasons, in
some cases due to complaints from neighbors or [...] individuals who do not want to look at poor
people, in other cases because they are recruited to commit crimes by the police themselves [...]
The young people who refuse [...] are generally tortured, harassed, and many times killed. And
also because the police have to prove to the higher-ups that they are working, and in many
cases one way to measure this in a precinct is the number of people detained for identity checks.
The police themselves have said in [their] investigations [that they have] to “get the statistics.”
“Get the statistics” means detaining individuals to be able to hit the monthly number of
detainees that the supervisors require. For this reason, [she argues that what is at issue is] a
problem that is deeper than the willingness [...] or bad intentions of a group of [...] police
officer[s and] is part of the structure of the police force itself[...]
61.
This can also be corroborated with the internal report prepared by the Human
Rights Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice, Security, and Human Rights of Argentina
issued in 2003 following an investigation on the domestic processing of the Torres
Millacura case. That report indicates that, “[y]oung people from a poor background
suffer constant abuses by the local [...] police.” 40
62.
Regarding the pleading of the representatives to the effect that there is a practice
of enforced disappearances in the Province of Chubut, the expert witness Tiscornia
specified that no such practice existed. Rather, she said, police abuses take place in the
Province of Chubut that occasionally, such as in this case, lead to the disappearance of a
person.
A.3.
Detentions of Mr. Torres Millacura in September of 2003.
63.
The State acknowledged that on September 26, 2003, Mr. Torres was detained by
the Comodoro Rivadavia police and transported to the First Precinct of that city. This
detention was not registered in the corresponding daily police log. The case file before
the Tribunal indicates that the Comodoro Rivadavia Radio Command registration
corresponding to September 25 and 26, 2003, shows that at 3:12 on September 26,
2003, in response to a telephone call reporting the presence of two individuals with a
“suspicious attitude,” unit 479 of Comodoro Rivadavia’s first precinct (hereinafter “First
Precinct”) was dispatched and that “[Iván Eladio Torres Millacura’s] arrest was carried
out.” 41 It may be inferred from the testimony of police chief Fabián Alcides Tillería that
given that Mr. Torres Millacura was already known in that precinct, and "[as] there
wasn't anything pertinent against him or any motives or merit for his detention, he was
released from the station” without that detention having been registered in the daily
police log. 42 Another police officer who was working in the First Precinct on September
26, 2003, testified to the same effect.43
40
Cf. Internal report drafted by the personal Secretary of Human Rights of the Justice, Security and
Human rights Ministry of Argentina (Case file of annexes to the application, tome I, folio 225).
41
Cf. Police report of September 25 and 26, 2003 of the Radioelectrical Command of Comodoro
Rivadavia (case file of annexes to the application, tome I, folio 400). See also, the Testimony of Fabián Alcides
Tilleria, Chief of the First Section of the Police Department, rendered before Examining Judge no. 2 on
December 11, 2003 (case file of annexes to the application, tome X, folio 7667), and the Testimony of Omar
Rubén Calfu submitted before the Administrative Preliminary Investigation Area of the Regional Unit of the
Comodoro Rivadavia Police on March 1, 2004 (case file annexes to the written final allegation of the State, folio
25667).
42
Cf. Testimony of Fabián Alcides Tilleria, Chief of the First Section of the Police Department, presented
to the Examining Judge no. 2 on December 11, 2003 (case file of annexes to the application, tome X, folios
7668 to 7669).
43
He indicated that "once in the station, [the detained persons] are identified, one as Iván Torres and
the other by the surname Álvarez[.] The first, [that is, Mr. Torres,] was known and his background and means
of living were also known. He was identified and left the station[. With regard to] the other one[,] as he had no
documentation and there was no reliable [knowledge] of who he was, where he was living, his prior record, he
remained under arrest pending an inquiry into his priors and legitimate means of living under [L]aw 815.” Cf.
testimony of Juan Sandro Montecino given before the Administrative Preliminary Investigation Area of the
Regional Unit of the Comodoro Rivadavia Police, March 6, 2004 (case file of annexes to the final written
arguments of the State, folio 25674). See also, testimony of Sergio Omar Thiers given before the
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