An official sees “evident” that it was an execution and assures that the “responsibility” of what happened will be investigated
The five young people killed at the hands of members of the Armed Forces of Mexico in the town of Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas, on February 26, they were not armed nor did they confront the soldiers. This has been confessed in an interview with ‘El Universal’ by the undersecretary of Human Rights, Population and Migration of the Ministry of the Interior of Mexico, Alejandro Encinas, who has asserted that it was an execution.
“We have to wait for the investigation that was requested from the National Human Rights Commission, since it was not a confrontation with the young people, regardless of who they were, they were executed,” said Encinas, who pointed out that the undersecretary under his charge will pronounce when the results of the investigations opened for the case are made known. The federal official has indicated that, from his point of view, it is “evident” that there are elements to prove that it was an executionreiterating that they were not armed and there was no confrontation, as the members of the Armed Forces themselves have suggested in their defense.
Encinas has indicated that, although the military have the right to self-defense, if they break the law and commit a crime, “they must fulfill their responsibility.” Likewise, he has considered that the investigation must include the chain of command and not only the elements that activated the weapons. “Of course the investigation should address responsibility of the chain of command in this operation, not only the actions of elements of the Armed Forces”, he has sentenced.
On February 26, members of the Mexican Army fired at a van in which seven civilians were on board, after allegedly shots were heard and the vehicle suffered an accident, causing the death of five people. According to the version of the Armed Forces, they heard shots and went to the area where the sound came from, while they decided to start a pursuit against a suspicious vehicle that sped up when it witnessed the Army.
“They visualized a van-type vehicle with seven individuals on board, who were moving at excessive speed with the lights off and without license plates, whose members, upon observing the presence of the troops, accelerated speed in an untimely and evasive manner, stopping their march at later collide with a vehicle that was parked”, wields a statement from the Army.
After the impact, according to Sedena, the soldiers approached and opened fire on the passengerscausing the death of five people and seriously injuring another, while one of them remained unharmed, as reported by ‘El Sol de México’.
Meanwhile, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office has already begun an investigation to clarify what happened and verify the veracity of the version of the Armed Forces, which contrasts with that of the neighbors, who assure that the military Shots were fired at the vehicle as it was moving.which caused the driver to lose control and collide with another car.