Rights group calls for immediate probe into deadly Mexico shootout

Mexico needs to conduct an impartial investigation into a recent shootout between police and civilians that left 42 civilians and one officer dead in the western state of Michoacan, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The gunfight between presumed cartel members and government security forces, the latest bloodshed in the area plagued by gang violence, took place near Tanhuato in the western state of Michoacan on May 22. A mayoral candidate was murdered earlier this month in the state ahead of midterm elections.

Federal Police General Commissioner Enrique Galindo reported that officers were responding to gunfire by the civilians, but HRW said the disparity in the death tolls between the two sides raised serious questions about whether or not the use of force was lawful.

“Given Mexican security forces' poor human rights record, a rigorous and transparent investigation is critically important to determine if indeed there was a proportionate use of force during the shootout, and if there were extrajudicial executions,” Daniel Wilkinson, Americas managing director at HRW, said in a news release.

Family members of some of those killed reported to HRW that one of the bodies had facial bruising and a missing eye, another had a gunshot to the head and the teeth of a third had been knocked inward. Nearby residents said most of the shots fired came from the police helicopter, the human rights group added.

“The Attorney General’s Office should take immediate steps to ensure that these crimes are investigated without the delay and negligence that characterized the investigation of the killings in Tlatlaya last June,” Wilkinson added.

At Tlatlaya, on the southern fringe of the state of Mexico, bordering Guerrero and Michoacan, soldiers killed 22 suspected gang members on June 30. Authorities initially said the deaths happened during a shootout, but a witness said the men were killed after surrendering.

State prosecutors detained two of the three surviving witnesses, according to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). They were beaten, repeatedly asphyxiated with a bag and threatened with sexual abuse to force them to say the military was not responsible for the killings, CNDH said.

After the Attorney General’s Office got involved with the Tlatlaya case three months later, seven soldiers and one lieutenant were charged with several of the killings, the HRW press release said.

“To avoid repeating the investigative fiasco of the Tlatlaya case, the attorney general should immediately reach out to independent and rigorous forensic experts who can provide credibility to her office’s investigations into the killings,” Wilkinson said.