Cancún, Quintana Roo — A state investigator with the Quintana Roo Prosecutor’s Office allegedly tortured a taxi driver on two separate occasions to force confessions to two murders, according to findings by the state Human Rights Commission (Cdheqroo). The victim, Jesús Reynaldo Jiménez Pacheco, has been imprisoned for 13 years and is now appealing to municipal and state authorities for intervention.
First torture and confirmation
Jiménez was arrested on April 14, 2013, by municipal police while driving his taxi. He was beaten and accused of a homicide that had occurred an hour earlier, which he said he knew nothing about. Officers took him to the Public Security Department, where they continued beating him and applied electric shocks to extract a confession. He was then transferred to the state prosecutor’s office, where investigators allegedly suffocated him with a bag, beat him, and applied more electric shocks until he placed his thumbprint on a written confession.
In 2016, Jiménez filed a complaint with the Cdheqroo. An investigation using the Istanbul Protocol confirmed torture. On November 11, 2020, the commission issued Recommendation Cdheqroo/13/2020/II, verifying the abuse and ordering the Benito Juárez municipality and the state prosecutor’s office to take corrective actions, including registering Jiménez as a victim and investigating the officers involved. Those measures have not been implemented.
Second torture by same agent
Before the first recommendation was issued, Jiménez was again taken to the prosecutor’s office on February 2, 2015, where the same investigator allegedly tortured him to confess to a murder that occurred inside the Cancún prison on January 30, 2015. Jiménez said he was taken to a room called the “operating room,” where his face was covered with his shirt, he was beaten, suffocated with a bag, and had hot sauce thrown in his face. He signed a second confession and was returned to prison with severe bruising.
A medical report from the prison documented his injuries. The prosecutor’s office had no record of the interrogation but later obtained an arrest warrant in November 2015. The Cdheqroo issued a second recommendation, Cdheqroo/02/2026, in March 2026, confirming torture by the same investigator and ordering an investigation and psychological care for the victim.
Unfulfilled recommendations and plea for help
Jiménez’s lawyer, Marco Antonio Canales Affona, said he has sought amparo relief to compel compliance with the recommendations. One appeal was rejected, and he has also petitioned the state Congress, which is responsible for verifying implementation. In a letter from prison, Jiménez pleaded with Mayor Ana Patricia Peralta de la Peña and Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa for intervention.
“Both agencies violated all my rights and tortured me to incriminate myself,” Jiménez wrote. “I have already proven my innocence through the two recommendations for torture, but I remain imprisoned, paying for fabricated cases.”
“Do not close your eyes to the truth. Do not allow the silenced suffering of Jesús Reynaldo Jiménez Pacheco to be just a sad note in judicial records. This case should be a symbol of the fight for justice and a reminder that our institutions must be guardians of human rights, not executioners,” he added.
