Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

The police talk openly and unashamedly about using cruel and violent methods to get
confessions and mete out justice. In the episode of La Familia Burrón in which
Tinoco’s mansion is robbed, when the police arrive, the chief of police warns the
family: ‘No se asuste de los procesos que utilizamos para hacer hablar a los
sospechosos’, and asks Mr Titino Tinoco ‘Señálenos con quién empezamos. Para que su
esposa y usted no se impresionen mucho, los haremos hablar a garrotazos.’ 196 This
refers to the fact that they could use even more violent methods to get confessions.
Likewise, when Ruperto is arrested on suspicion of having robbed the factory where he
works, and the police want him to confess, an officer tells him: ‘Dentro de un rato, en
medio de horrorosos gritos, nos confesarás dónde tienes guardada la fortuna que
robaste’. 197
The torture described and presented in some issues of La Familia Burrón is very
detailed and closely-related to some of the torture methods used at the time, 198 from
beatings to more technologically-advanced methods, which are referred to as ‘adelantos
científicos en las investigaciones’. 199 However, they are caricatured and mixed with the
196 La Familia Burrón, 17191, p.22.
197 La Familia Burrón, 17185, p.33.
198 For more references, check Laura Castellanos, México armado 1943-1981 (México: Ediciones Era,
2007), pp. 224-227 and 248-254.
199 La Familia Burrón, 17164, p.13.
Image unavailable due to
copyright restrictions
Image 3.8. ‘Ruperto being tortured’. Gabriel
Vargas, La Familia Burrón (n.d.) (colour)
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