Shohn Huckabee Describes His Time In Juarez Prison

An American man who is free after spending nearly two years in a Mexican prison in Juarez said he witnessed government corruption at all levels, overheard federal police kill an unarmed inmate and watched the city police chief — already dogged by accusations of condoning torture and brutality — beat inmates with a two-by-four.

The firsthand account by Shohn Huckabee provides a rare view into life behind bars and reaffirms allegations made by thousands of Mexican prisoners whose complaints are often ignored by authorities.

?I don?t see any justice,? Huckabee said. ?I see corruption. I see lots of corruption.?

He said the corruption includes small amounts of cash for prison guards.

?$2 to $3 for a favor here, (a) favor there. All the way up to the Mexican Supreme Court wanting X-amount of dollars for you to be out next week.?

The 24-year-old said he didn?t have the tens of thousands of dollars needed to buy his freedom.

Huckabee spent nearly two years at the municipal prison known as Cereso after he and a friend, Carlos Quijas, also a U.S. citizen, were arrested in Juarez on Dec. 18, 2009. Huckabee said he was across the border getting his truck repaired. Border residents often visit mechanics in Mexico because they work for less money.

Soldiers detained the men as they were heading to an international bridge on their way home. The soldiers said they discovered two suitcases full of marijuana in the truck. Huckabee and his friend said the drugs were planted.

In September he was transferred to a federal prison in the United States to serve out the rest of his five-year sentence. The U.S. Justice Department ordered Huckabee?s release after just three months after the federal parole board determined he was tortured by Mexican authorities while in custody. On Thursday, Quijas was also transferred to a U.S. prison.

Now that he is home, Huckabee is speaking out about his time behind bars in Mexico. He lived through a deadly prison riot and the brutal crackdown by authorities that followed. He said he witnessed municipal police officers and city police Chief Julian Leyzaola beat inmates with two-by-four pieces of wood.

?He was hitting them, personally,? Huckabee said. ?I saw him.?

When asked if the chief was wearing a mask, Huckabee said, “No.”

Leyzaola is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who is often viewed as a brutal police chief or brave crime fighter. He?s helped clean up the border city of Tijuana and lately has been credited for reducing crime in Juarez. But allegations of torture and corruption follow him.

He has denied the allegations in Tijuana.

A spokesman for the Juarez Police Department said Leyzaola is in the middle of a “special operation” and too busy patrolling the streets to comment on the recent accusations.”

Huckabee said federal police also abused inmates. He alleges that they used deadly force after a prison riot in which inmates had been disarmed and stripped.

“We were lying in the area next to them on the basketball court,? he recalled. ?They had just taken all our clothes off and laid us all on ground close together. And all we hear is a ‘rafaga’ (burst of gunfire) of the rifles.

“We?re like, ‘What?s going? What?s going on?’ Well, they had shot him. And all the guys, the feds, started cocking their rifles and we?re like, ?Great, this is what they?re doing. We?re all laid here on the ground and they?re going to start opening fire.'”

Huckabee said the man killed was a gang leader. A spokesperson for the federal police force did not respond to phone calls or emails asking about the shooting.

According to Huckabee, inmates tried denouncing the incidents to human rights activist Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, but he was not allowed in the prison. De la Rosa Hickerson confirmed that the police chief barred him from entering the prison at the time the beatings allegedly took place.

Huckabee?s parents and wife, who visited him weekly while he was behind bars, support his decision to share his story now.

?The easiest thing to do would be just to leave and not tell the story, but it needs to be told because there are so many people over there that are hurting,? said Kevin Huckabee, Shohn?s father. ?It?s a tragedy for an entire nation that needs to be told to the rest of the world.?

Some policy analysts in Washington suggest allegations of human rights violations only solidify their growing concerns about whether rule of law in Mexico is actually improving, and they question whether these latest accusations will further dampen U.S. support for continued aid to help Mexico?s federal government effort to fight drug traffickers and clean up its judicial system.

Under terms of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative aid package, Mexico could lose 15 percent of the aid if there is evidence of human-rights violations. The State Department is required to issue a report in the first half of 2012 on whether Mexico is fulfilling its human rights requirements.

Shohn signed deportation papers that stipulate he must stay out of Mexico for 10 years, but he vowed, ?I won?t ever return to Mexico. I don?t plan to visit there ever again because this could happen to anyone.?