On February 26, 2023, seven young men were attacked by 17 soldiers while traveling in a van through the city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; it was around 4:50 in the morning when the Mexican Army officers fired their weapons because they “heard gunshots.”
The official version mentioned that the young men were traveling at excessive speed, with the lights off, and that they tried to flee when they saw the military convoy; however, the relatives of the victims – five young men died – stated that they were not armed and that it was an extrajudicial execution.
About two years after the crime, District Judge Juan Gonzaga Sandoval declared four of the 17 soldiers from the XVI Cavalry Regiment stationed in Nuevo Laredo guilty; However, it will be in the next few days when the judge will determine the responsibility of each of the soldiers identified as Agustín “N”, Bernardo “N”, Jorge “N” and Juan Carlos “N”.
In an interview for the Aristegui Noticias portal, Raymundo Ramos, president of the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee, recalled that the seven young men were pursued by the military, who crashed their truck into the official vehicles, then dragged their car and subsequently started shooting, killing five young men and seriously wounding one more.
It is worth remembering that Alejandro and Luis Gerardo were the only survivors, however, the military tortured and threatened them so that they would not file complaints: Luis Gerardo was shot when he had already been subdued on the ground; while Alejandro was forced to record a video in which he recounted a chase that did not occur.
Far from the official version, the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee maintained at all times that the young people were celebrating Gustavo Ángel’s birthday and that the victims were returning to their homes when three Mexican Army trucks caught up with them and killed the birthday boy and his friends Wilberto Mata Estrada, Jonathan Aguilar Sánchez, Alejandro Trujillo Rocha and Gustavo Pérez Benítez.
Although the investigation of the case was shrouded in a series of irregularities, including his exoneration for the crime of “disobedience” within the military jurisdiction, the investigation led by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) managed to get the captain of Cavalry, Elio Conde Toledano, to declare that “the four corporals fired without a superior order in between,” which helped the judge to sustain his guilt.
Source: infobae
