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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2007 
19 Mexican Soldiers Jailed in Deaths
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
| | Drug gunmen ambushed and killed five soldiers in a coordinated attack last month in Calderon's mountainous home state of Michoacan. |
Nineteen Mexican soldiers were sent to a military prison Monday after troops allegedly killed two women and three children whose vehicle failed to stop at an army checkpoint, the Defense Department said.
The shooting in the Pacific state of Sinaloa is the latest case of suspected abuse by soldiers deployed by President Felipe Calderon in a national offensive against powerful drug cartels.110
The family was traveling to a funeral on Friday when they were ordered to stop at the checkpoint near the village of La Joya, according to local media. When they failed to stop, soldiers reportedly opened fire on the van.
Police identified the dead as Alicia Esparza Parra, 17; Griselda Galaviz Barraza, 25, and Galaviz Barraza's children Joniel, 7; Griselda, 4, and Juana, 2. Three other civilians in the van were wounded.
Mexico's Defense Department said in a news release that three officers and 16 enlisted personnel were being held Monday at a prison in the city of Mazatlan pending an investigation by military and civilian authorities into the killings.
Sinaloa Gov. Jesus Aguilar on Monday lamented the shooting, but said the army will remain in the state "to safeguard the security of its citizens."
Calderon has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to battle heavily armed drug gangs blamed for more than 1,000 deaths this year, including dozens of victims who have been decapitated and had their heads displayed in public places.
Drug gunmen have also hit the military, ambushing and killing five soldiers in coordinated attack last month in Calderon's mountainous home state of Michoacan.
In the days following the ambush, soldiers were alleged to have held four teenage girls from a nearby village hostage as they beat and raped them, according to the government-run National Human Rights Commission.
The Defense Department said it will cooperate in an investigation into that incident.
On Sunday, soldiers shot dead a 27-year old man after he refused to stop at a military checkpoint near the border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, police said. |
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