Mexican federal police have been accused of executing about two dozen suspected members of a drug cartel at a ranch in the western state of Michoacan in May 2015, by a human rights commission report.
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The commission’s findings were the result of an extensive investigation (pdf) into the killing of 42 civilians and one police officer in the state of Michoacán in May 2015.
The uneven death toll immediately raised suspicions of extrajudicial executions. One police officer also lost his life.
Earlier, the government said there had been no human rights violations.
“That is to say, in our minds they acted in legitimate defence”. The helicopter was also hit by gunfire, the report said.
The CNDH was unable to clarify how another 15 of the victims were killed, he said.
The ombudsman said forensic investigations indicated police had moved the bodies of the dead and planted weapons on them.
“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.
Police used a Black Hawk helicopter during the operation, reportedly firing some 4,000 rounds into the ranch, known as the Rancho del Sol, during the initial assault.
Mexico’s federal police, the army and the navy have always been implicated in abuses since a drug war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives began in 2006.
A human rights commission report into that incident found that at least 12 people were executed during an operation in which a military patrol stormed a warehouse filled with alleged gunmen, and several women. One died in a fire and another was run over.
The government refused to release the autopsy reports of the victims.
Though activists insisted that the investigation should include the chain of command and evidence of a shoot-to-kill orders sent to the head of the patrol, global pressure did help ensure that eight soldiers were arrested in connection to the alleged massacre.
In that case, three women who survived were tortured by agents of the state prosecutor’s office to corroborate the army’s version.
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