Nineteen ninety-one was the second full year of operation for the Los Angeles office of Human Rights Watch. The office opened in May 1989 to complement the work of the California Committee of Human Rights Watch--a group of concerned Californians who actively promote and participate in our work. The Los Angeles office is responsible for the research on Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican border area performed by Americas Watch. The office also sponsors educational programs on international human rights in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is available to carry out research and campaign tasks for all components of Human Rights Watch.

Research on Mexico continued to be the cornerstone of the Los Angeles office's work in 1991. Two reports were produced: Prison Conditions in Mexico and Unceasing Abuses: Human Rights in Mexico One Year After the Introduction of Reforms. Both received substantial press coverage in Mexico and contributed to prodding the Mexican government to intensify human rights reforms. In March, the office prepared testimony on human rights in Mexico which was presented to the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs. In October, a representative from the office spoke at the U.S.-Mexico Center of the University of California at San Diego on human rights in Mexico one year after the introduction of reforms. Also in October, an office representative addressed the newly formed Mexican National Association of Democratic Lawyers about documenting human rights abuses.

During 1991 Human Rights Watch, through the Los Angeles office, joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in litigation against the estate of Ferdinand Marcos on behalf of three victims of human rights abuses in the Philippines during his presidency. The cases are precedent- setting because they are the first human rights cases under the Alien Tort Claims Act that are scheduled to go to trial on their merits.

The Los Angeles office helped to prepare briefs for and participated in key hearings on the case in January, July and October. In April, Human Rights Watch participated in depositions in New York of Imelda Marcos and her son Ferdinand Romauldez Marcos. In May, an office representative traveled to Manila for three weeks to gather evidence for the litigation. In October, Human Rights Watch, under the direction of the Los Angeles office, filed an amicus curiae brief in Trajano v. Marcos; a parallel case to Sison v. Marcos. The brief challenged an attempt to limit the scope of the Alien Tort Claims Act to prevent damage suits for gross abuses committed abroad.

Research continued on abuses by the U.S. Border Parol and by other agencies of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the arrest and detention of undocumented aliens in the United States. A report is scheduled for release in early 1992.

During its research on INS abuses, the office learned of a case in which Border Patrol agents used torture to elicit information from two Guatemalan men who had entered the United States without inspection. According to the men, Border Patrol agents in Falfurrias, Texas used a cattle prod on one of them and threatened to rape him with it; both men were severely beaten. Through the efforts of the Los Angeles office, Human Rights Watch has joined Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) in representing the men. TRLA will handle their lawsuit against the individual agents, while Human Rights Watch, in cooperation with volunteer attorneys in Texas, will assume responsibility for their Federal Tort Claims Act proceedings against the INS.

The Los Angeles office filed Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of Antonio Valenzia Fontes, a Mexican lawyer, and four others who were detained, tortured and held incommunicado for five days before being officially "arrested" on trumped-up drug charges. The five men allege that U.S. law enforcement agents were present during their torture, and that in two cases, the torture was stopped to allow the U.S. agents to interrogate the men, and then resumed. (For more on this case, see the chapter on Mexico.)

In February, the Los Angeles office prepared a memorandum on freedom of expression during political campaigns. The research was incorporated into a letter from Helsinki Watch calling on the Polish Helsinki Committee to withdraw its support for the prosecution of losing presidential candidate Stanislaw Tyminski. Tyminski was charged with "publicly insulting, ridiculing and deriding the Polish Nation" under laws that dated from Poland's repressive past.

During June and July, several members of the California Committee participated in visits to four jails and prisons in Southern California and contributed to the Human Rights Watch Prison Project's comprehensive nationwide report, Prison Conditions in the United States.

In September, a California Committee member served as a public member of the U.S. delegation to the Moscow meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension, part of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In addition to working to promote human rights through the U.S. delegation, she participated in independent activities organized by Helsinki Watch in Moscow at the time.

As part of its public education program, the California Committee and Los Angeles office helped to organize several well attended events. In January, Fang Lizhi, China's most prominent astrophysicist and outspoken human rights activist, was our guest for a series of public and private meetings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In April, Andrew Whitley, just back from a fact-finding mission to Kuwait, made presentations in both cities. In May, Holly Burkhalter spoke to members of the California Committee on Human Rights Watch's work in Washington. In October, Jose Zalaquet, a distinguished lawyer and longtime human rights activist from Chile, and Juan M‚ndez, executive director of Americas Watch, addressed a small gathering in San Francisco. Aryeh Neier, executive director of Human Rights Watch, was the featured speaker at the California Committee's November annual meeting.

Jane Olson and Stanley Sheinbaum are co-chairs of the California Committee. Its Executive Committee includes Raquel Ackerman, Mike Farrell, Paul Hoffman, Joseph and Donna LaBonte, Daniel Levy, Lynda Palevsky, Lucille Polachek, Clara A. "Zazi" Pope, Hon. Phillip R. Trimble, Francis Wheat and Diane Wittenberg. The remainder of the California Committee is composed of Lynn Alvarez, Edward Asner, Geoffrey Cowen, Dolores A. Donovan, Sandy Elster, Brenda Freiberg, Jonathan M. Gordon, Arthur N. Greenberg, Kristin Hubbard, Lucy Hubbard, Rosanne Keynan, Clifford L. Klein, Abraham F. Lowenthal, Beatriz Manz, Felicia Marcus, Hon. Dorothy W. Neslon, Hon. James F. Nelson, Steven A. Nissen, Claire Pollack, Cruz Reynoso, David W. Rintels, Vicki Riskin Rintels, Ramona Ripston, William Rothbard, Orville Schell, Pippa Scott, Nancy Wheat, Stanley Wolpert and Zohreh Zarnegar.

Ellen L. Lutz is the California director of Human Rights Watch and heads the Los Angeles office. Jean Hessburg is the outreach coordinator and Colleen Rafferty is an associate. Eugene Chao and Rudy Guyon were full-time law-student interns who assisted with Sison v. Marcos and other projects. Ivan Arrellanes is a research intern who assists with work on Mexico.