“Soldier, friend, the people are with you”: they marched in CDMX against the detention of soldiers in Nuevo Laredo

“Soldier, friend, the people are with you”: this is how the protest organized in the Mexico City this March 12, which was given against the arrest of four elements of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena).

This after the agents were prosecuted for disobedience, as announced by the sedenaafter considering that the military used their weapons in the massacre where five young people were murdered at dawn on February 26 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

However, for the protesters – including civilians, former soldiers and relatives of those detained today – the detention would have been unjust, so since the beginning of March and via social networks such as ICT Tac there Twitter began to summon the public to participate in the march that took place this Sunday on Reform March around 09:00

According to the call, the demonstration left the Angel of Independence in the direction of Basement capital with the aim of “defending the rights of the military”.

In this sense, the demonstration was covered with olive colored clothes and posters that read phrases such as: “Thank you for being a soldier and leaving without knowing if you will return”, “Free our soldiers” and “In memory of the soldiers who died while waiting for an order to fire which is not never came”.

Although at least a hundred people could be seen protesting in Mexico City, it was not the only scene of the demonstrations: in front of the installations of the 24th Military Zonelocated in the Buenavista neighborhood north of Cuernavaca, Morelosa small contingent did the same.

The mobilizations that took place ten days after the announcement of the Military Justice Prosecutor of the Defense Secretariat (Sedena) linked to the trial, for the offense of disobedience, four of the soldiers implicated in the acts of violence that took place in New Laredowhere 5 young people died and another was injured.

According to Sedena’s version, military elements saw a type of truck pick up with seven people on board supposedly going fast track, lights off and no license plates.

Supposedly, upon noting the presence of the troops, the truck accelerated in an “untimely and evasive” manner, but this would have resulted in a subsequent impact against a parked vehicle.

With the confrontation, there was a great noise which would have caused “the soldiers to activate their firearms”, killing the young people identified as Gustavo Perez Beriles, Wilberto Mata Estrada, Jonathan Aguilar Sánchez, Alejandro Trujillo Rocha and Gustavo Ángel Suárez Castillo”the latter being an American citizen.

Likewise, the sedena affirmed that another crew member was taken to a private hospital with gunshot wounds to his body, where he was reported to be in serious health.

In this sense, the Nuevo Laredo Human Rights Committee reported that the van the youths were traveling in had at least 20 gunshot wounds and that two people had been “finished off” in the neck as they lay on the pavement.

Regarding the facts, the testimony of a 21-year-old young man, identified as Alejandro Perez Benitezwho managed to survive the attack.

In his statements, he assured that the soldiers had shot him and his companions several times for no apparent reason. It was during an interview with the media and human rights organizations that he explained that none of the people traveling in the vehicle were carrying weapons, illicit substances or any other type of object.

The young man also said that on the day of the attack, he and his friends went to a nightclub. After leaving the establishment, they took the road to City of Anahuac, when the van they were traveling in would have been shot in the back by the military.

Moments later, he said, they began to hear gunshots. Alejandro was behind the driver and, in his attempt to shield himself from bullets, crouched down until the gunfire stopped.

“When I turned to the sides they were all dead“, he recalls.