A deadly attack exposes a growing threat in Mexico: the military

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Gustavo Ángel Suárez Castillo, a U.S. citizen from San Antonio, loaded six friends, including two brothers, into his white pickup truck with Texas plates just before dawn after spending the night celebrating the news that he was going to be a father

Suddenly, four vehicles loaded with armed men began chasing them and shooting at them.

The van crashed and as the passengers were being tossed around, the gunmen threw some to the ground and shot one in the back, survivors said The New York Times.

One of them said he saw his brother slowly stop breathing as the assailants prevented the arrival of doctors.

By the time it was over, five of the men, including Suárez, were dead and the other two seriously wounded.

The attackers?

Mexican soldiers in uniform.

Survivors and a senior government official called execution in cold blood the shooting that occurred in the city of Nuevo Laredo in the early morning of February 26.

So far, four of the 21 soldiers involved in the encounter have been arrested and the case is being investigated by civilian and military prosecutors.

The episode raised concern about the growing presence of the Mexican military, which was entrusted not only with national security tasks but also with a rapidly expanding portfolio of companies, such as a new international airport and a major railway line.

This highlights what human rights defenders and analysts consider a dangerous flaw in Mexico’s system of governance:

Partner with one of the most powerful institutions in the country little supervision.

Despite a long history of human rights violations, the military has taken responsibility civil security after the federal police was disbanded in 2019, tackling the country’s violent crime syndicates but also putting residents at risk of becoming victims of heavy-handed tactics, critics say.

Under the command of an active-duty general, not a civilian leader, the Ministry of Defense is not required to publicly release documents or report on its activities and often refuses to appear before the Congress of Mexico to answer questions.

Decision

The military’s tight control over its affairs has led the Mexican president to consolidate government projects under the military to limit their transparency, and has meant that cases of civilian deaths at the hands of the military rarely go to trial.

“Given the growing role of the armed forces in Mexico, it is really crucial and urgent” that “they are regulated with a civilian oversight mechanism, which should be created to control and ultimately guarantee the responsibility“said Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

THE UN called for an independent investigation into the Nuevo Laredo killings, citing a history of excessive use of force by the military in the city.

An initial military statement suggested that the men in the van were armed and had not been following the soldiers’ orders.

But this claim was denied by Alejandro Encinas, a senior human rights official in the federal government.

“It wasn’t a fight,” Encinas said.

“They were executed.”

Soldiers fired 117 shots during the incident, despite the casualties They have never brandished a gun according to a preliminary report by the National Human Rights Commission.

The defense ministry declined to comment on the killings, citing ongoing investigations.

Asked to comment on Suarez’s killing, a US official said the US government had issued its highest-level alert for Tamaulipas, the state that includes Nuevo Laredo, warning its citizens to they will not travel there.

Lawyers representing the families of the dead and survivors say the army tried to withhold details of what happened that morning.

They accuse the soldiers of removing the license plates from the truck to bolster their claim that the men were behaving suspiciously.

A survivor says he was forced at gunpoint to confess on tape that the men had shot the soldiers earlier.

A week after the attack, around midnight about ten soldiers showed up at the home of one of the survivors in an attempt to intimidate him shut up, their lawyers said.

We don’t understand why they shot young people who weren’t even attacking them,” said Raymundo Ramos, chairman of the Tamaulipas Human Rights Committee, an advocacy group that represents survivors and the families of the deceased.

(An earlier New York Times investigation revealed that Ramos had been spied illegally from the military while working on another case in Nuevo Laredo related to the military and allegations of human rights violations).

During the administration of the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obradorthe military has gone far beyond its primary mission of policing and security and delved into various profitable businesses.

They built and operate Mexico City’s new airport and are building much of the country’s largest tourism project, a nearly 1,000-mile, $20 billion railroad that they will manage when completed.

The armed forces are also responsible for the customs of the countryone of the largest revenue generators in Mexico, with projected revenues of $59 billion by 2022.

Such responsibilities, analysts warn, give the military the ability to do just that raise money on my own and could undermine Mexico’s balance of power.

At the same time, in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, the military’s long history of abuse has generated deep resentment.

Ramos’ organization has documented 18 cases of military-related human rights abuses since 2018, including executions, rape and torture of civilians. Only one made it to trial.

In one case, a 4-year-old girl, Heydi Mariana, was fatally shot in August when the car she was traveling in was hit by soldiers.

At least 16 bullets passed through the vehicle.

The army said the girl died in a fight with the criminals, but did not provide any proof.

No charges have been filed against anyone.

My daughter went to kindergarten,” said the girl’s mother, Cristina Rodríguez, 26, adding that soldiers showed up at Heydi’s funeral, which the family interpreted as an act of intimidation.

“She wasn’t a criminal.”

The night before the February van attack, the victims, all in their 20s, were at a local nightclub toasting the news that Suárez was to be a father.

After getting into Suárez’s truck, they came upon four military vehicles carrying 21 soldiers who began chasing the men.

In a statement, the army said the soldiers had heard gunfire in the direction of the truck.

The account of what happened next is based on interviews with survivors, relatives of the deceased, their lawyers and the government report.

The soldiers drove one of their vehicles into the truck without identifying themselves or asking them to stop, survivors say, a statement confirmed by the National Human Rights Commission.

The impact forced the truck to crash in front of the home of 60-year-old Sara Luna.

The soldiers made him lie face down next to his brother.

Then, according to Pérez, his brother was shot in the back.

As she lay in a pool of her brother’s blood, Pérez could hear an ambulance, but soldiers prevented it from arriving for more than an hour.

Pérez said he placed his hand on his brother’s body.

It started to get cold. I kiss him.

Pérez said they then forced him to record a confession in which he said he shot the soldiers first.

Luis, a 25-year-old barber who also survived, recalls getting out of the car with gunshot wounds to his lungs and stomach.

He says the soldiers also threw him to the sidewalk and shot him in the back.

The soldiers accused him of trying to escape.

“I told them, ‘How do I escape, I’m bleeding to death,'” he said.

Eventually, paramedics managed to get Luis to a hospital where they induced a coma.

His full name was not disclosed as he fears reprisals from the army.

Humberto Suárez, the father of the American victim, woke up that morning hoping to prepare a catfish he had caught to celebrate that his son had started a family.

Shortly thereafter, she received a call that her son had died.

She rushed to the scene and found her son’s bloodied remains strewn across the floor of the truck.

Days later, according to Suárez, a military representative met with him and the relatives of the other victims to discuss a Economic agreementa common tactic by the military, analysts say, to try to discourage families from going to the media or taking cases to civilian courts.

“They didn’t come to say ‘we’re sorry,'” he said of the meeting, which he secretly recorded and shared with The New York Times.

“They came to ask how much we wanted, as if our children were dogs.”

c.2023 The New York Times Society