Twenty-two people were arbitrarily executed by federal police on a ranch in Mexico past year, according to the country’s human rights commission. A total of 43 people, including one police officer, were killed in the confrontation in the western state of Michoacan on May 22, 2015.
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“We established facts that imply grave human rights violations attributable to public servants of the federal police”, Raul Gonzalez, the president of the CNDH, told Reuters. The commission reports that it couldn’t reach any definitive conclusions about how 15 others were killed.
The report is a fresh blow to Pena Nieto, whose approval rating is at an all-time low over perceptions he has not tackled rampant crime and corruption.
The human rights commission also found fault with the actions of investigators from the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office, who deviated from protocol and mishandled ballistics evidence. He said an investigation was being conducted into the case.
Federal police in Mexico murdered 22 suspected cartel members during a raid a year ago and manipulated the crime scene to hide the extrajudicial killings, according to authorities there.
However, Mexico’s national security commissioner, Renato Sales, rejected the report’s findings, stating the use of weapons was “necessary and proportional”.
“The helicopter fired some 4,000 rounds at the ranch house and a nearby warehouse, which caught fire”.
“That is to say, in our minds they acted in legitimate defence”. Fifty-four officers arrived. “This is very serious, and a massive blow to the government”.
A helicopter killed at least five people, the report says.
The army’s version was that 22 suspects died in a gunfight in which only one soldier was wounded.
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The events took place May 22, 2015, during an operation to take control of a ranch near the town of Tanhuato that had been occupied by gunmen belonging to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
