MEXICO-KILLINGS Mexican army ordered to kill in Tlatlaya massacre, 15-year-old girl among dead

Record ID: 148725

  • Title: MEXICO-KILLINGS Mexican army ordered to kill in Tlatlaya massacre, 15-year-old girl among dead
  • Date: 2nd July 2015
  • Summary: TLATLAYA, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) SOLDIERS OUTSIDE WAREHOUSE VARIOUS OF TROOPS AT SCENE WHERE INCIDENT TOOK PLACE PAPER ON GROUND THAT READS: DECEASED-12 VARIOUS OF SCENE MORE OF TROOPS VEHICLE WITH BULLET HOLES VEHICLE ON TOW TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA87PIMAP4A6KEHP81QVL2ZY4VY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: NGO groups in Mexico banded together for the release of a damning new report on Thursday (July 02) that accuses the Mexican army of ordering the mass execution of 22 suspected gang members, amongst them a 15-year-old girl, last year in a small town in the State of Mexico.
    According to the report, soldiers executed 22 people in the town of Tlatlaya following a confrontation with the army. Prosecutors had initially accepted the army's account that the suspected gang members had died in a June 30 shootout with the soldiers. But that changed after journalists interviewed an alleged witness, who said the victims had surrendered and were then shot.
    After a year of investigations, interviews with eyewitnesses and the release of classified official documents, the report says soldiers were ordered to "take down" criminals at night.
    "The lieutenant ordered that troops should mainly operate at night in a massive way and reduce their activity during the day in order to 'take down' criminals in the dark. For the Centre PRODH, after a detailed inspection of the file, there is no doubt that in the context of the case of Tlatlaya, the concept to 'take down,' was used to end with human lives," said Santiago Aguirre, Deputy Director of Centre PRODH.
    The incident took place in Tlatlaya on the southern fringes of the State of Mexico, which borders Guerrero and Michoacan, states plagued by gang violence.
    In September, Mexico's then Attorney General Jesus Murillo said three army soldiers had been accused of homicide over the Tlatlaya incident. Murillo said the three soldiers were part of a group of eight held.
    The other four soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty. It was not immediately clear why the eighth soldier was not charged.
    Under a series of recent judicial reforms, Mexico's military can now face civilian charges when soldiers commit crimes against civilians.
    But the suspected mass execution at Tlatlaya has shone a light on human rights abuses by the Mexican military as it keeps up its crackdown on the country's brutal cartels.
    From Amnesty International Mexico, Executive Director Perseo Quiroz, said clear protocols for excessive use of force in the military needs to be clearly established.
    "Any state of right has clear protocols of the use of force, of the rational use of force, the proportional use of force, the exceptional use of force and if this does not happen, there should be truth, justice and compensation, which has not occurred in this case," he said.
    Amongst the damning information in the controversial report is an eyewitness statement of a mother whose 15-year-old daughter was found dead amongst the victims at Tlatlaya.
    In May, Mexico's government announced it would compensate relatives of 15 people executed by the soldiers last year, in a scandal that has embarrassed President Enrique Pena Nieto.
    The mass killing is one of a number of security issues that have upset Pena Nieto's efforts to shift attention onto his economic reforms and away from endemic gang violence that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since 2007.
    Last September, 43 student teachers were abducted from a town in the poor southwestern state of Guerrero. The government says the students were abducted by corrupt police who handed them over to gang members who then killed them and burned their bodies.
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