Thread: Where Have All the Mexican Soldiers Gone?

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August 7, 2006

Where Have All the Mexican Soldiers Gone?


Frontera NorteSur

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 "cockroach 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 Acuña, 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 Military guards were reported to have been withdrawn from an airport in Sabinas and security duties turned over to the Federal Preventive Police and Coahuila state police, whose personnel conducted sporadic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 Monclova, Coahuila, discovered a group of six 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 committed 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 Institute installations in Monclova, 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 six soldiers on charges of abandoning their duties; at least two other alleged culprits have deserted. Reportedly, the six 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 six 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, six 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 a march of 500 people in the city of Monclova 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 who should receive punishment and not the citizens. 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 Acuña 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.

Press dispatches reported that Mexican army outposts in Muzquiz, Saltillo, Cuatrocienegas, Ciudad Acuña, and Piedras Negras appeared practically deserted this week, while soldiers who normally staffed highway checkpoints were nowhere in sight

These are all crossing points in Texas. Since Arizona crossing are hampered by the guard, perhaps the barn door is being left open in Texas.

Supposedly, the soldiers were guarding ballots from the July 2 election at Federal Electoral Institute installations in Monclova, 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.
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, six 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.

Rape appears to be a cultural thing.