MEXICO CITY (AP) – A Mexican human rights group on Thursday released what it says are military documents that show high-ranking officers had given soldiers standing orders to kill criminals ahead of an army mass slaying of suspected criminals who had surrendered.
The documents appear to be the first evidence that soldiers involved in the June 30, 2014, killing of at least 12 civilians in a rural area west of Mexico City could argue they had been following orders.
They also indicate that high-ranking military officials knew immediately that something had gone wrong, according to the report from the Miguel Agustin Pro human rights center.
“Soldiers should operate on a mass scale at night and reduce daytime activities, with the aim of killing criminals at night,” read the orders signed June 11 by Lt. Col. Sandro Diaz Rodriguez, commander of the command of the 102 Infantry Battalion.
“This is the first time that express orders have been documented that would encourage the commission of serious human rights violations,” the rights center said in the report. It said it was given the documents from military court files as part of an appeal on behalf of one of the survivors.