Mexico court orders new look at killings of 22 drug suspects

MEXICO CITY -- A Mexican judge has ordered federal authorities to investigate whether army commanders played a role in the killing by soldiers of 22 suspects at a warehouse three years ago.

The ruling said the federal attorney general's office did not investigate a military order reportedly issued before the killings in which soldiers were urged to "shoot down criminals in hours of obscurity." The federal judge's ruling was issued Aug. 1, but it did not become public until Tuesday.

The government's human-rights agency said at least a dozen and as many as 15 of the suspects were executed after surrendering to an army patrol after a June 2014 gunbattle in the central town of Tlatlaya, west of Mexico City. Army authorities initially claimed all 22 people were killed during a firefight after the soldiers were attacked.

Seven soldiers were accused of homicide, but civilian courts eventually threw out the charges against all of them.

The latest ruling came in a complaint filed by one of three women who survived the bloodshed and later accused agents of the Mexico state prosecutor's office of torturing them into supporting the army's version of events.

The decision says the federal attorney general's office "has not diligently conducted any diverse investigation into the facts or the orders issued to military elements through the chain of command."

The attorney general's office did not respond to requests for comment on the judge's ruling.

The Prodh Center, a group of human-rights advocates, said the ruling confirmed that there are problems with the enforcement of justice in Mexico.

"To date, no one is being held accountable for this arbitrary deprivation of life. The number of execution victims is not known for certain, nor have the responsibilities in altering the crime scene been clarified," the group said in a statement.

Questions about the killings emerged when The Associated Press found that evidence at the site didn't match the army's account of a clash with drug suspects. There was little sign of a protracted gunbattle. Instead, the walls of the warehouse showed a repeated pattern of one or two closely placed bullet holes surrounded by spattered blood, giving the appearance that some of those killed had been standing against a wall and shot at about chest level.

The National Human Rights Commission then investigated and issued its conclusion that many of the people were executed.

A Section on 08/16/2017

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