E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government is giving yet another version of what happened when soldiers killed 22 suspected gang members at a warehouse in rural southern Mexico last June.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said late Tuesday there were two gunbattles in the town of San Pedro Limon that left the majority of the suspects either wounded or dead. He said three soldiers entered the warehouse afterward and killed those who were still alive. The three will be charged with homicide, he said. A total of seven soldiers and a lieutenant are being prosecuted in the military justice system for dereliction of duty.
The latest version was corroborated by a witness, Murillo Karam said, even though she previously told The Associated Press and Esquire in separate interviews that only one person died in the firefight and 21 were killed after they had surrendered.
The witness, who told the AP that she watched as soldiers killed her wounded 15-year-old daughter, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. She has spoken on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The story of what happened in the warehouse has taken many turns over the last three months, including the fact that federal prosecutors didn’t investigate the scene until mid-September or interview a key witness until Tuesday.
The army initially said all 22 were killed in a firefight, and that soldiers rescued three kidnap victims. But the version came under question immediately because of the lopsided outcome: only one of eight soldiers in the confrontation was wounded. AP reporters visited the warehouse days after the incident and found little evidence of a shootout. Instead, the walls of the warehouse are marked with clusters of shots fired at chest-level, indicating some were shot at close range.
The witness said she was never kidnapped, and that the other two alleged kidnap victims were prosecuted for arms possession.
The witness also said she was pressured by Mexico state prosecutors to support the initial version — that all died in the shootout.
She said she told reporters what really happened in September out of anger over the killing of her daughter.
Murillo Karam acknowledged that her declaration had changed, but that it now closely mirrors his version of events, which only raised more questions when he spoke last week. His account depicted suspects standing by quietly while their companions were executed by three soldiers.
“Whoever asked how it was possible that three soldiers could kill more than 20 people, there were a lot of dead, a lot of injured,” Murillo Karam said. “That’s what the witness said today.”
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