The commission’s president Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez said the investigation revealed a range of human rights abuses on the part of government forces in the western state of Michoacan.
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Nearly all of the men who were killed in Tanhuato, more than 30 of them, came from the town of Ocotlan across the state border in Jalisco and less than an hour’s drive from the sprawling 112-hectare (277-acre) alfalfa farm the JNG cartel had recently seized. The government said those who died were suspected drug cartel members who were hiding in the ranch.
The raid was backed by a Black Hawk helicopter which reportedly shot around 4,000 rounds that reportedly killed five people.
Gonzalez said the police lied about their role during the incident, moved 7 bodies and shifted weapons to manipulate the scene.
Top state security official Renato Sales said the shooting erupted when the suspects refused to drop their weapons.
Although the death toll in the attack exceeded the global kill rate, it was not unusual for Mexico that has witnessed more than 100,000 killings as part of the drug war that began in 2006.
“They should have been arrested, not murdered.even if some of them were members of the cartel, that is no excuse.” said Margarito Romero, father of one man who died that day. One officer was killed during the incident.
“That is to say, in our minds they acted in legitimate defence”. Fifty-four officers arrived. The human rights watchdog also found that the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office was at fault for mishandling the ballistics evidence. The commission said 40 civilians were killed with gunfire, one died in a fire at a warehouse and one was run over with a vehicle. CNDH ombudsman Ismael Eslava said as quoted by the newspaper, that the police also used “excessive force that led to the arbitrary execution of 22 civilians”.
The same year, soldiers killed 22 suspected gang members. Police threatened their lives and the lives of their families, it said. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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