Yesterday, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) opened a file to investigate the involvement of the armed forces in the events of two days ago in Aquila, Michoacán. In this coastal municipality, two children were killed and several people were injured in an attack by the Army against Ostula comuneros protesting the arrest of Semeí Verdía Zepeda, leader of the self-defense of the Costa-Sierra regions, carried out on July 19, the same Sunday morning.
The gravity of this event is compounded because it is not an isolated incident: yesterday, according to a statement issued by the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) itself, the CNDH announced the opening of inquiries into the events of July 7 in Calera, Zacatecas, where there are "indications of probable participation by military personnel" in the disappearance of seven young people. These events are added to the massacre perpetrated in Tlatlaya on June 30, 2014, which left 22 people dead, the majority of whom were executed extrajudicially.
What happened in that town [Tlatlaya] in the State of Mexico bears similarities with the ... clashes between federal forces and members of organized crime in Apatzingán and Tanhuato, [Michoacán] in January and May of this year [MV Note: The Apatzingan clash was with Rural Police who had siezed the municipal hall demanding back pay. The Tanhuato clash was with alleged criminals]. [Both have] given rise to complaints from humanitarian organizations and victims' relatives to get to the bottom of whether the troops engaged in excessive use of force. Moreover, nearly ten months after the disappearance on September 26 of the 43 students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa, the Army's role in the events is still not satisfactorily explained.
It is, in short, about a string of gravely serious incidents of human rights violations where the constant is the participation, in varying degrees, of military troops. Such a perspective again highlights the counterproductive nature of the government's decision to involve military personnel in public security tasks that are alien and that form, one can see, a risk factor not only for the populace but for military institutions themselves. When all is said and done, episodes like the aforementioned put into question the function of safeguarding the rule of law that must be met by police and military institutions.
Yesterday, in an official ceremony in Tlapa, Guerrero, President Enrique Peña Nieto—in an echo of the stance previously taken by Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, head of the Secretariat of Defense [Army, SEDENA]—said that some are determined to stain the efforts made by the armed forces. Such a statement is unfortunate, because the deterioration of the image and credibility of these institutions, which constitute one of the pillars of republican institutions, is not caused by those who denounce acts that violate human rights, but by the repetition of such regrettable events.
It is, in short, about a string of gravely serious incidents of human rights violations where the constant is the participation, in varying degrees, of military troops. Such a perspective again highlights the counterproductive nature of the government's decision to involve military personnel in public security tasks that are alien and that form, one can see, a risk factor not only for the populace but for military institutions themselves. When all is said and done, episodes like the aforementioned put into question the function of safeguarding the rule of law that must be met by police and military institutions.
Yesterday, in an official ceremony in Tlapa, Guerrero, President Enrique Peña Nieto—in an echo of the stance previously taken by Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, head of the Secretariat of Defense [Army, SEDENA]—said that some are determined to stain the efforts made by the armed forces. Such a statement is unfortunate, because the deterioration of the image and credibility of these institutions, which constitute one of the pillars of republican institutions, is not caused by those who denounce acts that violate human rights, but by the repetition of such regrettable events.
To fully heal public confidence in the armed forces, getting to the bottom of the facts about these events is relevant and necessary, [as are] the enforcement of sanctions that may be required and full respect for human rights. To the extent that this is achieved, the country's military institutions will come out strengthened. Contrariwise, impunity, in circumstances as grave as the present ones, would cause irreparable damage to the military's prestige and legitimacy. Spanish original