Torture methods of the Guardia Civil

This police force has stood out during 2002 for the large number of citizens it has arrested, kept incommunicado and tortured; and for the brutality of the treatment the detainees suffered, both physically and psychologically. For this study, we have included 14 testimonies of women and 45 testimonies of men.

All the people arrested by this police force recount that the have been subjected to shouting during their whole time under arrest, shouting that was constant and in nearly all cases by more than one agent at the same time.

Visual impairment has been common practice in all cases, whether by placing a hood on the detainee, a blindfold, or by making the detainee keep his or her head down and eyes shut. This visual impairment usually begins at the point when the detainee is put in the car and lasts the whole incommunicado detention.

They have also told us of constant threats. Among these we can underline threats against loved ones (family, friends, partner, threats about arresting them and torturing them and/or killing them...) threats against the detainees themselves: threatening to take them to the hills and killing them, rape threats, threats about other types of torture (the bag, the bath, electrodes, going on to a more intense torture stage”...) threats about their going to prison, forcing the detainee to hold a gun and then telling them they have the detainee’s prints, threats about the detainee’s child (taking away custody..).

There have also been accounts of numerous blows and beatings. Blows to the head both with the torturers hands and with various objects (phone books, rolled up newspapers, sticks wrapped up in some kind of material, sometimes the area being beaten would be covered with a blanket...), slaps in the face, blows to the stomach, kicks to the stomach, ribs, head, pulling the detainee’s hair, blows to the pubic area. These beatings were in many cases to the point where the detainee would fall unconscious, and which continued in this state.

It must be underlined that all the people arrested by this police force have told us the were subjected to all kinds of sexual abuse , both verbal and physical. Nine of the fourteen women told us they were stripped naked in the police station, and while naked they have suffered all kinds of abuse: groping, rape threats (by the guardias civiles themselves or using various objects such as sticks, truncheons, vibrators...), threats of making them pregnant or of damaging them so as to make them barren, staging rape while they moved obscenely against her, or touching her body with various objects, threats to place electrodes on their genitals, forcing them to touch themselves, forcing them to touch the guardias civiles’ genitals, placing pliers on a detainee’s nipples and turning them round... And one of the women told us how while she was on her back on the ground, blindfolded, they placed what she believes to be one of the torturer’s penis in her mouth. The threats, insults and humiliations they have been subjected to have been numerous: infecting them with AIDS, making her pregnant, giving her already opened tampons when a detainee had the period, telling her they were getting “horny”, insulting them about their bodies, “you’re fat, ugly, I won’t rape you because you disgust me...” etc. As for the men, sexual abuses have also been numerous and persistent. Through the enforced nudity of nearly all of them during interrogation, through touching them with various objects (sticks, chair legs...) threatening to rape them, even carrying these threats out in seven detainees’ cases, where they were raped by putting a stick into their anus and in one case a torturer put his finger up the detainee’s anus.

In order to obtain physical exhaustion of the detainees, in many case they have been made to remain on their feet, facing the wall, for hours, even days, without sitting down, lying down or sleeping; and with their head down, both during interrogation and the time they spent in the cells. The detainees have told us how they have been forced to do press-ups to the point of extenuation, in some cases standing up and crouching down with their hands up, sit-ups, etc.

The detainees have recounted how they have often suffered suffocation, by means of a bag placed over their head, while in different postures: in some cases they were on their feet, other times on a chair, with their arms tied to it. On other occasions their body was wrapped in a blanket, they were thrown on the floor, and while some guardias civiles held them, others placed the bag over their heads and tightened it to the point of asphyxia, in most cases while they faced down. In other instances they were made to lay down on a foam rubber mattress an they were then covered with another mattress with some guardias civiles sitting or standing on them while others placed the bag over their head. In numerous cases they have told us how they even lost consciousness and defecated and/or urinated on themselves, subsequently having to keep the same dirty clothes on for the duration of detention.

Two detainees (a man and a woman) told us that they were subjected to asphyxia using the method known as the bath, while they were in the quarters at Intxaurrondo, their heads being put into a bucket with water, in one case, and in the other case, their head being put into a toilet and then flushing it.

There have also been people who suffered electrodes being placed in various parts of their bodies, while naked and after having been wet with cold water. Electrodes were applied to various sensitive parts of the body such as the backside, arms and ears, penis, nipples... And the majority of detainees have recounted having been threatened with using electrodes on them, in some cases even suffering staged use of electrodes, their body was wet and they were made to hold wires in their hands or place them on their feet.

They have also recounted having been subjected to staged executions. In some cases, guns were put to their head, or to their face, while the torturer pulled the trigger; in other instances the detainees were told they were being taken to the hills, the car would be stopped and they would be told they had a certain amount of time to run.

In the instances when a couple has been arrested, threats about the partner have been constant, they have been made to hear their screams, they have been used for blackmailing the other partner.

Sudden temperature changes; being stripped and left by an open window, having cold water poured over their body...

There have also been those who, in the various interrogation sessions, played the "good cop” and “bad cop" roles.

There have been several cases where the detainees recounted having suffered hallucinations in police premises, seeing strange things, shapes coming out of the wall, animals...