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Mexican Communist Party, was reported by his friends to have disappeared. A week later the police acknowledged his detention, alleging that he had hanged himself while awaiting arraignment. Newspapers openly attributed the death to maltreatment in police custody.
In late March 1975, AI was informed of the "disappearance" of two members of a leftwing political research and study group in Mexico City. Mexican authori- ties denied they were in police custody. Dirk Börner immediately cabled the Mexican authorities asking that all necessary efforts be made to locate the miss- ing persons and to ensure respect for their rights under the law. A letter from Deputy Secretary General Hans Ehrenstrale to President Luis Ecneverria further expressed Al's concern over the case in the light of similar disappearances, and especially that of Hilario Moreno. A week afterward, the office of the Federal Prosecutor General announced that the two disappeared persons were detained by the Federal Security Police. Shortly afterwards they were conditionally released.
"Disappearances" were the major subject of Al's appeals on Mexico in the past year. As illustrated by the Hilario Moreno case, the period immediately following detention is the most critical. National sections were asked to inquire into reported disappearances in which the victims were believed to be in the custody of government security agencies.
During the past year, AI has received considerable information on political imprisonment in Mexico. In contrast to the situation in the late 1960s, when non- violent student dissenters received long prison sentences, the current pattern is of short-term detention designed to intimidate, rather than to precede legal proceedings. The subjects are students, members of Mexico's tiny legal leftwing political parties, peasant leaders and leftwing journalists.
These detentions appear to relate to no specific crimes, but rather to be for the purposes of intimidation and general interrogation: release has generally followed shortly after interrogation and before judicial authorities are advised. While there are few long-term prisoners that are visibly prisoners of conscience, Al is deeply concerned over evidence of a generalized disregard in all political cases for basic rights pertaining to detention, interrogation and trial procedures.
In April 1975, Al Legal Adviser Nigel S. Rodley wrote to the Governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, requesting information on the continued detention of more than 50 students of the autonomous University of Sinaloa, held without trial since January 1974. According to Mexican law, no prisoner can be held for more than one year without trial.
Nicaragua
A state of martial law was imposed following a guerrilla action in December 1974, in which members of the Nicaraguan government and diplomatic corps, largely relatives of President Anastasio Somoza, were held hostage. Amnesty International received many reports of arbitrary arrests, torture and disappear- ances related to the Nicaraguan government's subsequent action against guerrilla movements and sympathizers. In February 1975, Secretary General Martin Ennals wrote to President Somoza to express Al's concern over suspen- sion of basic human rights under martial law.