The deaths of five young people at the hands of the military this Sunday in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, mobilized suspected relatives and neighbors and caused chaos in the south of the city. Videos shared on social media show dozens of people brutally attacking at least two soldiers as an army contingent attempted to tow a wrecked truck, a vehicle the young people were using when the military allegedly was attacking them would have shot. The youths apparently died in the early hours of Sunday morning and the protests intensified in the morning.
The videos also show soldiers firing in the air and on the ground. At least two other uniformed officers confiscated the phones of those at the scene, including the head of the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee, Raymundo Ramos. In other images, a person can be heard screaming in pain and accusing a soldier of electrocuting him with a “buzzard.” In one of the shots, a couple of people are protesting the rubbing of shrapnel after one of the soldiers fired at the ground.
So far, no authority has reported the matter. A source for the Tamaulipas Prosecutor’s Office has reported that the case concerns the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) as it is a matter affecting the military. When asked about this, a spokesman for the agency did not respond. A Tamaulipas government source has reported that FGR experts were investigating the scene of the event. In one of the videos, a man in an agency vest can be seen at the crime scene.
Elements of the Mexican Army on a street in Nuevo Laredo, after the events of this Sunday.RR.SS.
In a statement released this Sunday, the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee, which has long denounced abuses by the armed forces related to the war on drug trafficking, has reported that the military fired on the truck of the boys they left a club. The committee did not disclose the boys’ ages, whether they were students or professionals. He gave their names and also explained that there is a sixth young man in the hospital who was wounded by a bullet.
In the statement, the committee said more than 20 shots were fired at the truck they were traveling in, a white Chevrolet Silverado. Neighbor testimony collected by the organization indicates that the military killed two of the five youths outside the vehicle on the open road. In photos circulating on social networks these hours, two of the five dead boys can be seen lying on the ground.
The Declaration of the Human Rights Committee of Nuevo Laredo.
“In Nuevo Laredo, the military is out of control,” said Raymundo Ramos, “we urge the President of Mexico, the Attorney General’s Office and the National Human Rights Commission to order a full investigation into this new massacre, aggravated by the dispersal with bullets a group.” of citizens who are angry at so much abuse and injustice,” he added.
The history of controversial events involving the military forces in Tamaulipas is long and complex. From the years of Felipe Calderón’s presidency (2006-2012), through those of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) and now with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, complaints of excesses against the army and navy have been a constant.
The closest case dates back to September, when the military allegedly killed a four-year-old girl, Heidi Pérez, in an event as strange as this Sunday. Then a relative of the girl is said to have taken the baby and her seven-year-old brother to the hospital because of the little girl’s abdominal pain. It happened at night. On the way, the patrolling soldiers are said to have shot at the vehicle and fatally injured the minor. The case is still not resolved.
In Nuevo Laredo in particular, complaints were mainly directed against the Navy. In fact, in 2021 the agency publicly apologized for the forced disappearance of at least 45 people at the end of the last government. For these events, authorities have arrested 30 seafarers in a case that is making little progress in court.
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