Mexican Army is not only going missing in Baja
August 4, 2006
Human Rights/Security News
Where Have All the Mexican Soldiers Gone?
Coahuila state Governor Humberto Moreira Valdes expressed
concern this week about the sudden, public disappearance of
Mexican army units from his state. The border state
governor contended that the withdrawal of Mexican army
units from checkpoints and posts could encourage
a "c-ckroach effect" by leaving the pantry wide open to
organized crime. Moreira had no explanation for the Mexican
army's vanishing act, but he speculated that it could be
related to the intensifying post-electoral conflict in
Mexico City.
"I don't know if this had to do with the election conflict,
which perhaps we haven't appreciated in its full dimension
here in the northern part of the country," Gov. Moreira
said. "Maybe this redeployment of military forces is
directly associated with what is happening in the center of
the country."
Press dispatches reported that Mexican army outposts in
Muzquiz, Saltillo, Cuatrocienegas, Ciudad Acuna, and
Piedras Negras appeared practically deserted this week,
while soldiers who normally staffed highway checkpoints
were nowhere in sight. Military guards were reported to
have been withdrawn from an airport in Sabinas and security
duties turned over to the Federal Preventive Police and
Coahuila state police, whose personnel conducted sporadic
visits.
The Mexican Defense Ministry made no immediate public
statements in response to Gov. Moreira's comments, but
press bulletins posted on the armed forces' web site
emphasized continued anti-drug campaigns underway in
different regions of Mexico. An investigation by one
reporter in the city of Moncolva, Coahuila, discovered a
group of 6 soldiers quartered in a private home.
The mystery surrounding the Mexican army's public
disappearance from Coahuila closely follows a growing
scandal over an alleged mass rape commited by soldiers
assigned to the 6th Military Zone in Muzquiz in north-
central Coahuila early last July 11. Thirteen dancers and
sex workers working in a rural red-light zone outside
Muzquiz allege they were raped in two clubs by numerous
soldiers after an altercation broke out between a soldier
and security guards. One of the women lost a fetus as a
result of the violence; another was hospitalized twice
since the incident because of injuries sustained. Six
municipal police officers were allegedly severely beaten
and stripped naked by the soldiers.
Supposedly, the soldiers were guarding ballots from the
July 2 election at Federal Electoral Commission
installations in Moncolva, but showed up dressed in full
uniform in the red-light zone late on the evening of July
10. The mass rape is alleged to have occurred over a four-
hour period.
In the aftermath of the incident, Jose Luis Santiago
Vasconcelos, the head of the Office of the Federal Attorney
General's anti-organized crime unit, said a line of
investigation pointed to Los Zetas, the armed wing of the
Gulf Cartel that was founded by army deserters, and whose
members are sometimes reputed to don military uniforms. But
subsequent probes led to active-duty soldiers as the
alleged perpetrators of the July 11 attacks against the 13
women.
Although as many as 30 or more soldiers might have been
involved in criminal acts, military authorities have
arrested only 6 soldiers on charges of abandoning their
duties; at least two other alleged culprits have deserted.
Reportedly, the 6 detained soldiers were transferred to the
military brig in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, to face the music for
violating the military's code of justice. The Mexican
Defense Ministry has not released a public statement about
the scandal or detentions, and the names of the arrested
soldiers have not been publicized.
Much to the criticism of human rights advocates, the
soldiers have yet to face civilian charges. Coahuila State
Attorney General Jesus Torres Charles vowed to issue state
arrest warrants for rape, robbery and battery. "I'm
ordering the soldiers arrested and put in jail," Torres
said. "I won't accept any kind of arbitrary behavior by
these animals." Relatives of the 6 policemen allegedly
attacked by the soldiers report receiving anonymous threats
on the telephone and in the streets in recent days.
Torres and Rogelio Ramos Sanchez, the mayor of the
municipality of Frontera, denied they had knowledge of
another rape that was reportedly committed by soldiers in
Frontera's red-light zone in June. The Coahuila rape
scandal follows other episodes that involved sexual
assaults allegedly carried out by Mexican police or
soldiers this year.
For instance, 16 policemen from Mexico state face charges
of raping or sexually abusing dozens of women detainees
arrested after a confrontation between authorities and
protestors in the municipality of San Salvador Atenco last
May. In Chihuahua, 6 soldiers from the 76th Infantry
Battalion were accused in of raping a 16-year-old girl in
Parral in April, while in Ciudad Juarez, a municipal
policeman was arrested but later ordered released without
charges after a 15-year-old accused the officer of raping
her late last month.
On August 2, Roman Catholic Bishop Raul Vera Lopez led
march of 500 people in the city of Moncolva in support of
justice for the 13 Coahuila women. Bishop Vera said that he
hopes the Mexican army's sudden absence from Coahuila was
not in response to the rape scandal. "(Soldiers) are the
ones that should receive punishment and not the citizenry.
They must not send a message that they are untouchables,"
Bishop Vera said.
After experiencing a spike in narco-linked violence, the
Mexican army stepped up its presence in Coahuila,
especially in Ciudad Acuna on the Mexico-US border, where a
shoot-out reportedly involving Los Zetas claimed the life
of a police officer two months ago. By August 4, officers
from the Office of the Federal Attorney General and the
National Migration Institute were reported in charge of at
least one of the highway checkpoints previously staffed by
Mexican troops.
Sources: Proceso/Apro/Cimac, June 9, 2006; August 1, 2, 3,
4, 2006. Articles by Arturo Rodriguez Garcia, Soledad
Jarquin Edgar, Jackie Campbell, and editorial staff.
Zocalo.com.mx/Infonor, August 3 and August 4, 2006.
Articles by Camelia Munoz, Juan Ramon Garza, Jose Luis
Jimenez, and Alejandro Lopez Garza. Cimacnoticias.com, July
21 and July 31, 2006; August 2, 2006. Articles by Soledad
Jarquin Edgar and editorial staff. El Diario de Juarez,
July 31, 2006. Article by Javier Saucedo.
Cronica/Vanguardia, July 13, 2006. La Jornada, April 26,
2006 and June 8, 2006. Articles by Ruben Villapando,
Miroslava Breach and Victor Ballinas. Sedena.gob.mx
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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