The CNDH avoids investigating the chain of command of the ‘Nuevo Laredo case’

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has concluded that the soldiers who killed five boys in Nuevo Laredo at the end of February, and left another badly injured, made “excessive use of force through the illegitimate use of weapons of fire”. The ombudsman’s office, in the hands of Rosario Piedra Ibarra, has avoided inquiring into the possible responsibility of the military commanders on whom the accused soldiers depended. In his report, released this Tuesday night, the agency does not even consider the role of the Defense Secretariat (Sedena) and the State security strategy itself in what happened.

The commission has been quick. In less than a month, its researchers have prepared a document that includes a good part of the information made public these weeks, as well as new data, unknown until now. This is the case of the statements of the four soldiers accused of perpetrating the massacre, rendered before officials of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, shortly after what happened. According to their stories, one of them started shooting and the others followed him, without any aggression from the young men, who were returning from spending the night in a disco. The military fired a total of 117 times.

“The actions carried out by the elements of the Sedena,” the report says, “did not comply with the provisions of the Manual on the Use of Force, of common application to the Three Armed Forces, nor with the provisions of international standards. . The Secretariat is required, in compliance with applicable national and international regulations, to examine its training programs and operating procedures”, he adds.

“AR1, AR2, AR3 and AR4”, says the report, in reference to the indicated soldiers, “not only left the victims and their families defenseless, but also affects society as a whole, because with their conduct they violated the right to legal certainty, to personal integrity and security, and to life,” he adds. “This National Commission considers that this recommendation constitutes an opportunity for the Sedena to carry out actions and join a culture of peace, legality and respect for human rights,” he concludes.

Raymundo Ramos, director of the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee, an organization that has followed the case from the beginning, has criticized the work of the CNDH. “It’s very bad,” Ramos said. “It is a report that does not question the chain of command and that, furthermore, omits the cruel and degrading treatment suffered by Luis Gerardo and Alejandro,” he points out, referring to the two survivors. In their statements, which EL PAIS has published these weeks, the two affirm that the military shot Luis Gerardo, after the first burst, when he was asking for help, badly wounded, on the ground.