Mexican army accused of executing prisoners in June incident in Tlatlaya
Military says it killed 22 in shoot-out with gang, but a witness tells a different story
PUBLISHED : Friday, 26 September, 2014, 11:42pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 27 September, 2014, 4:07am
McClatchy-Tribune in Mexico City
Blood splatters like this one in Tlatlaya suggest executions, not a gun battle. Photo: AFP
Shortly after the Mexican army killed 22 people in what it described as a fierce gun battle with an armed gang, the governor of the state where the incident occurred praised the military for its actions.
The army had courageously and tirelessly protected citizens from ruthless criminals, Governor Eruviel Avila of the state of Mexico said in a ceremony, thanking the military for the operation.
But since the June 30 killings, mounting evidence has raised questions about the army's version of events.
Reporters who arrived at the scene in the town of Tlatlaya described blood spatter marks on walls that seemed to indicate summary executions, not a gun battle. They found few spent bullet casings, which would have been typical of a battle.
Last week, Associated Press quoted a witness to the events as saying her 15-year-old daughter was wounded in the shoot-out, then finished off by soldiers who fired into her chest as she lay languishing.
No one seems to doubt the dead were part of an armed gang. But most of the 22 killed were cornered in a warehouse and had surrendered, the witness told Associated Press, and were then killed by the military.
Only one soldier was reported injured in the incident.
If substantiated, it would be the first major military massacre under the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office two years ago.
For several years, the nearly 200,000-strong Mexican army has maintained high approval ratings among the Mexican public, but has come under increasing scrutiny for its actions in the field. It has been repeatedly accused of illegal detentions, torture and the extrajudicial killing of suspects.
To make matters worse, most military abuses have been tried in military courts even when civilians are the victims. The Mexican Supreme Court, following orders from international human-rights tribunals, recently ordered such cases to be turned over to civilian courts, but the implementation of that order has been slow.
In the wake of the Tlatlaya killings, Amnesty International called for an "exhaustive, impartial" investigation.
In the time since "soldiers killed 22 civilians in Tlatlaya, there are more questions than answers about what really took place that day", said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.
"A thorough, objective, and independent investigation … is needed and required by law."
Mexico's own national, semi-official Human Rights Commission said it was launching its own investigation into what happened in Tlatlaya.
For weeks, as outside calls for clarification reverberated, the government remained silent. The army stood by its original statement.
But with criticism overwhelming, the government last week said the federal attorney general's office was investigating the killings to determine whether the army "acted in accordance with the law and in absolute respect for human rights".
