So far from the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at least 47 people and families have been collateral victims of cases of inadequate use of force, abuse of authority or negligence by the Mexican army troops.The balance of these cases has been at least ten people dead and ten injured, in addition to material effects.

Although these are facts that constitute possible federal crimes - some of them serious - the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) acknowledged that it has not sanctioned its elements internally or has filed complaints against those involved before the Attorney General's Office(FGR).This under the argument that it does not touch.On the other hand, he has paid to the victims millionaire compensation through the signing of secret agreements.

The official information of the Sedena obtained by Animal Politicia through transparency applications shows that only in the first semester of 2021 eight cases of collateral victims were recorded due to actions of elements of the armed forces, including the death of AlLess two people in Tamaulipas and Chiapas.

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It should be noted that the defense does not require the exact number of victims in any case, so an issue that classifies as "death" could even have one or more people involved.

The other cases registered this year correspond to that of an injured person in Tamaulipas, four cases of ill -treatment and abuse of authority in Guerrero, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Mexico City, and two more cases of material damages caused by its elements in Chiapasand San Luis Potosí.Of none provided more details.

These eight cases of collateral effects are added to another 39 that the National Defense recognizes in the first two years of the current Federal Administration, of which 28 are from 2019 and 11 more to 2020.

Of the 47 cases accumulated to date there are ten corresponding to people who lost their lives after being injured by the Mexican Army..There are another dozen cases with at least the same number of victims where people were injured but did not die.To them are added six cases of medical negligence by military health services, five cases of abuse and abuse of authority, among others.

These collateral effects have been presented in 17 states of the country.Tamaulipas is the State that concentrates more cases with seven, followed by Sonora and Mexico City with four cases respectively.Then Jalisco, Baja California, Nuevo León, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Tabasco, and San Luis Potosí, each with two incidents with elements of the Armed Forces respectively.

Finally, an incident was recorded in the following entities: Hidalgo, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Guanajuato Sinaloa, Chiapas and Guerrero.

A decade of abuse

The abuses of strength and facts of negligence in which elements of the Mexican army have incurred by participating in public security actions and combating crime are not exclusive to this sexennium.For just over a decade, there have been dozens of cases of this type, many of which have not been publicly known.

In response to another application for transparency, the national defense reported that there are 195 cases of collateral effects registered from 2010 to date, including 54 cases of homicide with - at least - the same number of victims.

The cases recognized by the national defense are distributed as follows: ten cases occurred in 2010;13 cases occurred in 2011;eight cases in 2012;14 cases in 2013;22 cases in 2014;15 in 2015;16 in 2016;22 in 2017;28 in 2018;28 more in 2019;11 cases in 2020;and the eight registered in the first half of 2021.

The details of these cases and the precise dates and localities are not known since Sedena does not report them in their reports of annual activities, nor are they mentioned in the work reports that Presidents Felipe Calderón, Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel LópezObrador sends to Congress annually.

But what independent researchers have identified throughout the last decade is that the Mexican army has repeatedly incurclashes.

For example, researchers Javier Treviño, Laura Atuesta, Raúl Bejarano and Sara Velázquez built from the official data available a lethality index with which they obtained indicators that allow them to presume that, in effect, there is excessive use of the force.

"Let's put this in perspective.In the Vietnam War there were four people injured by each dead person.In the Mexican army operations, the opposite occurs: there are many more people dead than wounded or detained, ”concludes the researchers.

The secret arrangements

In June 2010, Sedena created its so -called Citizen Linking Unit (UNIVIC) with the objective, among other things, to “in a timely and effective way to civilians who are affected by the participation of military personnel in operations against drug trafficking andOrganized crime ".

And this unit was empowered to propose actions to be adopted in conflict resolution.Among these actions is the signing of specific agreements with the victims in which the Army agrees to provide various types of assistance, in addition to economic compensation (compensation).

According to the information provided by SEDENA, the UNIV has taken care of the attention of the 47 cases registered in the current six -year period and in 43 of them already signed with the victims the corresponding agreements.However, the amount of the supports that have been granted is maintained as reserved information.

"The information is reserved for a period of five years because their dissemination puts at risk the life and physical integrity of people who received compensation on the occasion of the facts referred toprovided by the military agency.

Military authorities who knew of these types of procedures - and that they ask for a reservation with their identity - pointed out that the compensation granted in the most serious cases come to ascend to several million pesos and that the aforementioned agreements include secretion or confidentiality clauses forthat the information is not disclosed by the victims.

Experts consulted by Animal Politico for this note had already advanced that this type of parallel mechanisms are violations of the provisions established in the General Victims Law.Lawyer Reyna Velasco said, for example, that the payment of compensation does not represent a comprehensive repair of the damage, but that other types of coverage and services are required.

In accordance with the aforementioned law, it is the Executive Commission for Victim Attention (CEAV) The institution empowered to provide the comprehensive care required by victims of human rights or crimes violations at the federal level.But according to Sedenden, less than half of all cases (only 94 of the 195) were reported before the aforementioned commission.

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And the sanctions?

Finally, the National Defense was requested to know what the actions that have been implemented against the elements involved in all these cases of abuse and negligence have been.But Sedena's response is that it does not correspond to her to take legal actions or submit complaints.

To the specific question of how many elements have been sanctioned by the institution for these facts, the Sedena said that “it does not have the information requested because the investigations involving civilian personnel are referred to the agent of the Public Ministry of the Federation, so they do notYou have followed them ".

And in follow -up of this response, it was questioned, then, how many of its elements have been denounced before the Public Ministry for their probable responsibility in these facts;The Sedena simply responded that "does not have that information", and recommended asking the Attorney General's Office (FGR).