Reporting from Apodaca, Mexico?
It was after midnight when Mexican marines burst into the Acosta home and, according to survivors, opened fire. Gustavo Acosta Jr., 30, implored the troops not to shoot; there were children in the home. He then fell dead, a shot to the head.Later, when they had roped off the scene, the marines planted guns and drugs to justify their actions, the family contends.
The Sept. 1 shooting death of Acosta appears to be part of a growing pattern of abuse by naval special forces, a branch of the Mexican military that has won wide praise from U.S. and other officials.
Although human rights violations by the army, including the torture and killing of captives, have been well documented by numerous human rights organizations and the media, the naval forces have been held in higher esteem. With ample U.S. training, they have been regarded as an elite, more professional body that acts with the best possible intelligence.
But increasingly, marines are being hit with the same kinds of allegations that have long dogged other forces.
"These are supposedly the best prepared of the Mexican armed forces, and what we saw was exactly the opposite," Maria Eva Lujan, Gustavo's mother, said in a tearful interview last week.
"My son fell at my feet," said his father, Gustavo Sr.
The Acosta shooting in this suburb of Monterrey, Mexico's wealthiest city, is just one of scores of cases reported in recent months to human rights investigators. Many of the incidents have been concentrated in Nuevo Leon state, of which Monterrey is the capital. The city was once a refuge from the kind of violence devastating other parts of Mexico but is now a center of cartel attacks and military response.
In a comprehensive report released Wednesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch documented 234 cases which the group says represent serious abuse by marines and other security forces in Nuevo Leon and four other Mexican states.
The 220-page report, more than a year in the making, paints a tableau of the killing, torture and sexual assault of detainees; "forced disappearances" (i.e., kidnappings where the victim never appears again); efforts by armed forces to hide their crimes by tampering with evidence; intimidation of families of victims if they complain or speak out; and virtually no serious investigations by civilian or military authorities of the allegations.
The decision by President Felipe Calderon in December 2006 to deploy troops, now numbering more than 50,000, against powerful drug cartels has not succeeded in reducing violence but instead has led to a "dramatic increase" in human rights atrocities, Human Rights Watch concludes.
The behavior by authorities has "only exacerbated the climate of violence, lawlessness, and fear that exists in many parts of the country," the report says.
After a 2 1/2 -hour meeting with representatives of the human rights group, Calderon's office issued a statement saying the biggest threat to Mexicans is not the government troops, but the criminals. Troops are being trained in human rights and working closely with state human rights officials, the statement said.
Representatives of the human rights group said that Calderon, in the sometimes tense meeting, agreed to examine the cases presented.
"We made him see the statistics," Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the organization's Americas section, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The Acosta family, meanwhile, has filed a formal complaint with federal authorities.
According to the family's account, six members of the family, including a 14-year-old girl, were home that night. Most were sleeping. Gustavo Sr. had recently been operated on and could not climb stairs. He was in the tiny, first-floor living room, with Gustavo Jr., who had come from his home in Nuevo Laredo to spend a few months helping out his recovering dad.
They heard gunfire, then the marines came pounding on the door demanding to be let in and shouting about having been shot at. As Gustavo Jr. started to unlock the door, explaining that no one inside the house was armed, the marines pushed through and killed him.
"Why? Why?" moaned his father.
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