MEXICO CITY (proceso.com.mx).- Last June, a video went viral: four members of the Mexican Army cold-bloodedly murdered five subdued and handcuffed people, during a day of confrontations and roadblocks that deranged the city of Nuevo Laredo Tamaulipas, on May 18.
The official report indicated that they were detained aggressors who died when their accomplices tried to rescue them, a version that was discarded with the video released and that today led to a Recommendation for Serious Violations of Human Rights issued by the ombudsperson.
This is Recommendation 119VG/2023 addressed to the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), for the interception of a vehicle in which five people were traveling who were executed by the soldiers.
In the “morning”
The video, widely disseminated as of June 6, prompted an ex officio investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), in the midst of an intense controversy that even reached the presidential press conference.
On June 8, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador admitted the illegal behavior of the military and the Sedena assured on that date that it would collaborate with the investigations.
The FGR was complicit in the illegal actions of the soldiers because, in accordance with the recommendation of the CNDH, a ministerial expert responsible for the analysis and preparation of reports on the mechanics of injuries to the victims, concluded that there was a correlation between the facts narrated in the military report, which turned out to be false. and the injuries, so that it hindered the legal course of the investigation folder.
Measures
With the conclusion of the CNDH, the Sedena and the FGR must integrate an investigation both in the common jurisdiction and in the military jurisdiction, as well as an administrative procedure; they must make comprehensive reparation for the damage caused to the families of the victims and provide free professional care with personnel from outside the Army.
The matter also involves a new design of a comprehensive training plan, courses on the Use of Force Manual and the National Law on the Use of Force, especially on the legitimate use of firearms, aimed at elements of the battalion of Special Forces of the State of Mexico and those of the Laguito Operations Base, in Nuevo Laredo.
Meanwhile, the expert who falsified the report must also undergo training.
Serious human rights violations are actions committed by State agents when they commit torture; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; extrajudicial execution; forced disappearance and sexual violence against women. Due to their size, when they are continuous and widespread they can be crimes against humanity.
In this case, the seriousness was because the extrajudicial execution of the five detainees murdered in the operation was amply proven.
