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Andrés Manuel López Obrador: President of Mexico since 2018
Photo: HENRY ROMERO / REUTERS
Authorities in Mexico are investigating an incident in which soldiers allegedly shot five men. Earlier, media published a video showing about a dozen military personnel surrounding a pick-up truck after it crashed into a fence at high speed.
The video shows the soldiers pulling, kicking and punching five occupants out of the vehicle. One of the soldiers takes a gun out of the pick-up truck. Then they push the men towards the fence. The soldiers then appear to first take cover and aim at invisible targets in the distance before shooting the men.
"No impunity for the conduct of military personnel"
Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said there were indications of an illegal killing. He spoke of "executions" at a press conference. Local security authorities in the state of Tamaulipas had initially spoken of an exchange of fire between armed criminals and soldiers.
The Ministry of Defense said that the case was being investigated. "There is no impunity for the conduct of military personnel, nor will any conduct that violates the rule of law be allowed," it said in a statement.
The incident occurred in the city of Nuevo Laredo, the same place where Mexican soldiers killed five men in February, according to human rights groups.
In Mexico, the military has been massively deployed in the fight against drug cartels and violent crime syndicates for more than 15 years. According to human rights organizations, this has led to numerous human rights violations and an increase in homicides in the Latin American country of 126 million people. According to official statistics, there have been almost 180,000 homicides in the past five years alone.
bbr/AP/dpa