Americans Allege Torture by Mexican Soldiers

It sounds like the script of a B movie, but it's very real for two Americans behind bars in Mexico: They tell the Wall Street Journal that Mexican soldiers stopped their pickup near the border, planted two suitcases of drugs, then beat and tortured them with electric shocks. The Texas residents face 25-year sentences when their verdict comes down this month.

"When I did not answer their questions, they shocked me with a wire that was in my hands," says one of Americans, 23. "My whole body froze up. The pain went from bearable to a point where I couldn't even talk." The Journal notes that a human-rights office in the region is investigating 465 similar cases of alleged abuse, torture, and planted evidence by soldiers, who are under fierce pressure to control the drug cartels.