Canadian armoured vehicle company Terradyne and sales to police force implicated in human rights violations

Photo by Terradyne.

In July 2013, the Migrant Human Rights Network (la Red DH Migrantes) expressed “its concern about the probable acts of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as violations of due process in the cases that occurred between March and June of this year [2013], documented and denounced by the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo ‘Frontera con Justicia’, AC, in the state of Coahuila.”

Their report compiled “the testimonies of at least 35 victims of alleged acts of threats, sexual assaults and torture by elements of the Municipal Preventive Police of Saltillo and agents of the Operational Response Group of the Municipality of Saltillo (GROMS).”

The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) further noted: “The OMCT has been informed of cases of suffocation, electric shocks and rape among various torture techniques.”

Just a few months later in February 2014, the Newmarket, Ontario-based Terradyne Armored Vehicles Inc. tweeted: “Take a look at this video of the GURKHA LAPV used by Saltillo Police Department – GROMS / SRT.”

By 2016, these special forces in Coahuila (the state where Saltillo is situated) were discontinued after a series of scandals related to human rights violations, according to the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH).

Broader context

In 2016, the Amnesty International Surviving Death report demonstrated that “the Mexican police and armed forces routinely torture and ill-treat women, and that sexual violence is routine during arrest and interrogation.”

In 2019, Terradyne highlighted that it had sold its vehicles to the Nuevo Leon police in Mexico. It has also sold its Gurkha RPV vehicles to the Veracruz Fuerza Civil (civil force) and its MPV to the Ministry of Public Security in Ciudad Guadalupe, Nuevo.

CANSEC arms show, June 1-2

Now, Terradyne has its vehicles on display at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa.

For  more on the protest against CANSEC that took place yesterday morning, see this Radio-Canada report (in French) that includes an interview with Cym Gomery from World Beyond War and the image below of a Terradyne vehicle parked on the CANSEC site.

Still from Vanguardia video of Terradyne armoured vehicle used by the Saltillo Operational Reaction Group (GROMS).