Mexican prosecutors said Friday they have charged three soldiers with killing at least eight suspected drug gang members execution-style after a shootout. Prosecutor Jesus Murillo Karam explained that most of the 22 people suspected of kidnapping who were killed had died during a confrontation in June with the soldiers in the central town of Tlatlaya.
But after the shootout, the army sergeant and two soldiers used their weapons to finish off the "last eight" suspects who were still alive. "The other eight were killed with the weapons of those who were already shot down," Murillo told MVS Radio. A lieutenant who was leading the group of soldiers will also be prosecuted for "concealment" of the case, Murillo added, stressing that the investigation remains open.
The case has caused an uproar in Mexico over the practices of security forces in fighting organized crime, in the wake of the disappearances of 43 students who were attacked by gang-affiliated police two weeks ago in the southern city of Iguala. If confirmed, it would mark one of the worst horrors in a drug war that has left more than 80,000 people dead since the conflict ramped up in 2006.
The Tlatlaya killings happened on June 30 when a military patrol in the state of Mexico some 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the capital fought a gun battle with 22 people inside a warehouse. The defence ministry said then that the soldiers came under fire from the warehouse, triggering a firefight in which 21 men and one woman died. One soldier was wounded, it added. Authorities found three women who said they had been kidnapped and 25 rifles in possession of the suspects, the ministry said. Media reports said they belonged to a drug cartel called La Familia and the warehouse served as a lab for making synthetic drugs.
But on September 17, the Latin America edition of the US magazine Esquire reported that one of the women said she had been abducted and that the soldiers had shot first. She said there was only one fatality initially, and that the other 21 people had surrendered, were interrogated and then executed in cold blood, including her 15-year-old daughter.