M. Communication Mo. 319/1988. Edgar A. Canon Garcia v. Ecuador (views adopted on 5 November 1991. at the forty-third session^ Submitted bv: Edgar A. Canon Garcia Alleged victim: The author State party; Ecuador Bate of cottanunicationi 4 July 1988 Date of the decision on admissibility: 18 October 1990 The Human Rights Committee, established under article 28 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Meeting on 5 November 1991/ considered communication Ho. 319/1988, submitted to the Committee by Edgar A. Canon Garcia under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Kights, Having taken into account all written information made available to it by the author of the communication and by the State party. Adopts its views under article 5, paragraph 4, of the Optional Protocol, Facts as submitted by the author 1. The author of the communication (initial submission dated 4 July 1988 and subsequent correspondence) is Edgar A. Canon Garcia, a Colombian citizen currently imprisoned on a drug-trafficking conviction at the penitentiary in Anthony {Texas/New Mexico), United States of America, He is represented by counsel. 2.1 The author lived In the United States of America for 13 years until 1982, when he returned to Bogota, Colombia, where he resided until July 1987. On 22 July 1987, he travelled to Guayaquil, Ecuador, with his wife. At around 5 p.m. the same day, while walking with his wife in the reception area of the Oro Verde Hotel, they were surrounded by 10 armed men, reportedly Ecuadorian police officers acting on behalf of INTERPOL and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, who forced them into a vehicle waiting in front of the hotel. He adds that he asked an Ecuadorian police colonel whether the Ecuadorian police {Policia Nacional Ecuatofiana) had any information about him; he was told that the police merely executed an "order" coming from the Embassy of the United States, After a trip of approximately one hour, they arrived at what appeared to be a private residence, where Mr. Caii6n was separated from his wife. 2.2 He claims to have been subjected to ill-treatment, which included the rubbing of salt water into his nasal passages. He spent the night handcuffed to a table and a chair, without being given as much as a glass of water. At approximately 8 a.m. the next morning, he was taken to the airport of Guayaquil, where two individuals who had participated in his "abduction" the -290-