[ad_1]
(Mexico City) Mexican Human Rights Watch said in a report that the Attorney General’s Office failed to properly investigate allegations that soldiers shot and killed a 4-year-old girl in August 2022 Reportincluding visual evidence, was released today.
The report states that “Who Killed Heidi Perez?” The report details serious oversights and errors by the prosecutor leading the investigation. Despite irregularities in the evidence presented by the soldiers and inconsistencies between the military’s timeline and video evidence from the night of the shooting, the Attorney General’s Office failed to take basic steps to corroborate the military’s version of events, Human Rights Watch found. Authorities also failed to follow up on ballistics test results that showed a probable but inconclusive match between the bullet that killed the little girl and one of the weapons carried by a soldier that night.
“Nearly two years after Heidi Perez was killed, the attorney general’s office has done little to investigate the serious inconsistencies in the military’s version of what happened on the night of August 31, 2022,” he said Juanita GobertesAmericas director at Human Rights Watch. “The Attorney General’s Office should not just passively accept the Defense Department’s claim that the soldiers had nothing to do with Perez’s death. This is a recipe for impunity.”
Heidi Pérez was killed by a bullet that hit the rear windshield of her car while her family was driving through the center of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on the night of August 31, 2022. Her family said that soldiers shot at the car, killing the little girl.
Human Rights Watch reviewed thousands of pages of criminal investigation files, interviewed Heidi’s family and her lawyer, visited the shooting scene, and examined the car Heidi was traveling in. The researchers also consulted with independent forensic and ballistics experts and reviewed satellite and open-source imagery and security camera footage from the night Heidi was killed. Evidence reviewed in the case file included witness statements, forensic studies, and photographs of the crime scene, vehicle, ammunition, and wounds.
Human Rights Watch reviewed the Defense Department’s claim that Perez was killed by unidentified members of a criminal group who allegedly opened fire on nearby soldiers but found no credible evidence to support the claim.
Human Rights Watch sent letter On 1 August, he sent a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Goetz-Manero outlining the findings of the investigation and urging him to take steps to correct the omissions in the investigation. He has not yet responded.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the Ministry of Defense in February, requesting information about the events of the night of August 31, 2022, including a list of soldiers and military vehicles in the area. The General Directorate for Human Rights responded on June 23, 2020: possibleIt also said that an internal investigation had determined that “the soldiers did not violate human rights.”
Heidi’s mother, Christina Perez, said she was approached in September 2022 by a Defense Department official who offered “support” if the family agreed to stop speaking publicly about the killings. She told Human Rights Watch that she thought that meant offering money. She refused. “The only thing I want now is the truth,” she told Human Rights Watch. “I want the attorney general’s office to do its job.”
After she rejected the offer, the military began harassing her family. She said soldiers followed her family in Nuevo Laredo and began showing up outside their home at night. Eventually, she left Nuevo Laredo to protect her family from the harassment.
The Mexican Ministry of Defense often provides financial compensation to the families of soldiers killed or injured in action. From 2010 to 2022, reporters found more than 230 Such agreements between the Ministry of Defense and the families of the victims. The Ministry of Defense rejected Human Rights Watch’s request for information about the 2023 agreement.
[ad_2]
Source link
