Complaints soar against Mexican soldiers charged with protecting citizens from cartel violence

01:52 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 6, 2008

By LAURENCE ILIFF and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News


REYNOSA, Mexico – José Antonio Barboza and his brother-in-law were driving around this border town early one Saturday when armed men in ski masks opened fire from several vehicles, killing one and injuring the other.

That normally is not big news in this city of 1.2 million, given the presence of the Gulf drug cartel and its Zeta enforcers.

But Mr. Barboza and Sergio Meza Varela weren't involved in the drug trade, police and human rights officials said. And neither were their assailants.



ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN
José Antonio Barboza still has a bullet under his skin after Mexican soldiers in ski masks opened fire in Reynosa.
View larger More photos Photo store The killers: Mexican army soldiers charged with protecting them from the cartel violence drowning the nation.

As the presence of the military has increased in cities like Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros, complaints of human rights abuses – including allegations of torture, rape and homicide – have tripled in the last two years.

"Something like eight soldiers just started shooting," Mr. Barboza said. They were just a couple of miles from the international bridge that leads to Hidalgo, Texas. "I heard them surround us and someone said, 'They're dead, let's get out of here.' "

Mr. Barboza, 35, said he and his brother-in-law had been drinking earlier but were not drunk. Mr. Meza was 32.

Similar stories have some Mexicans, especially those in cartel strongholds where tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent, wondering if the cure is worse than the disease.

Americans are staying away from the Mexican side of the border, where visitors are met by armored vehicles, Humvees and young soldiers carrying machine guns.

"I worry about the young girls because the soldiers could just burst into the house to rape them, and since they wear ski masks, they would be impossible to identify," said Mr. Meza's sister Esmeralda Meza, 33.

Military officials have cooperated with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission by prosecuting soldiers and taking disciplinary action as recommended by the semi-autonomous rights agency. But the National Defense Ministry also has suggested that anti-military protests are being funded by drug cartels – something the protesters reject.

And in a statement last month, the ministry said it had intelligence that the Juárez cartel planned on dressing in army uniforms, painting vehicles military green and attacking the civilian population to discredit the army in Ciudad Juárez, which borders El Paso.

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment Monday.


ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN
Americans are staying away from the Mexican side of the border. At Nuevo Progresso, visitors are met by armored vehicles, Humvees and young soldiers carrying machine guns.
View larger More photos Photo store

In general, polls show that President Felipe Calderón's 17-month crackdown against the drug cartels remains popular – he has an approval rating of about 60 percent.

The use of soldiers to back up police in some communities has reduced narco-violence, although it has popped up elsewhere and remains at record levels. More than 1,000 people have died so far this year.

In a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Calderón defended the use of the military to fight cartels, which have killed more than 300 police officers over the last 12 months.

"The goal is to keep the rule of law," Mr. Calderón said. "If I need to use the army and the navy, I will. It is a top priority for my government – the lives of the citizens, the safety of the families."

Asked about when the troops would return to their barracks, he said: "We are preparing new federal police. We are recruiting every month from universities" and training recruits for at least a year "in order to get confidence in the federal police."


Many skeptical

But despite support for the army – the country's most respected institution after universities and the Roman Catholic Church – skepticism is creeping in.

In a national survey by the Mexico City newspaper Reforma last month, the percentage of Mexicans who disapprove of Mr. Calderón's handling of the drug war rose to 31 percent from 21 percent last June. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

The head of Mexico's rights commission, José Luis Soberanes, has called for new police to replace soldiers in the drug fight. He also condemned abuses during the military's April incursion into Ciudad Juárez, including its refusal to allow contact with prisoners held in military barracks.

"We are not against the persecution of criminals," he said in a prepared statement, "but it is inadmissible that by accident, a lack of preparation, or laziness that average citizens are affected ... by indignant criminal acts typical of undisciplined soldiers."

Soldiers under the influence of drugs have also tried to make their innocent victims look like the culprits, said Susana ThalÃ*a Pedroza, the commissioner in charge of complaints against the military.

"The soldiers always say 'we put up a checkpoint' " that was not respected by the victims, Ms. Pedroza said. "In the cases we have verified, there were no checkpoints, and such checkpoints are prohibited by the constitution."

Human rights complaints against the armed forces rose from 199 in 2006 to 384 a year later, she said. They are running at a faster clip this year, with more than 200 as of mid-April – triple the monthly rate in 2006.

While police have long been accused of torture in Mexico, "now the ones doing the torture are the soldiers," said Ms. Pedroza, who said the commission has verified the insertion of wood chips under victims' fingernails and simulated drownings.


Drugs still flow

Analysts said the drug war is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Drugs continue to flow into the U.S. from Mexico, said Eric Olson, a former member of the Organization of American States, which is monitoring the drug fight.

"If measured in the number of capos captured or done in, then the strategy has been a success," he said. "If measured in terms of drugs entering the U.S., the record is not so good.

"And if you add to that the enormous increase in violence that has resulted – not only against drug traffickers but against ordinary citizens – then I think one has to question the strategy."

Reporters along the border complain of pressure by drug cartels to run stories about military abuse as a way of generating citizen pressure for the soldiers to leave.

"I'm not saying the reports are all false, but I don't think it's as bad as it sounds," said one reporter in Reynosa, who like his colleagues requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. "The communities are definitely safer with the military presence, but many people are too afraid to speak out. People are just tired of all the operations."

Gen. Jorge Juárez Loera, commander of the Ciudad Juárez military base, told the newspaper Norte de Ciudad Juárez that "we have had some excesses because we're also victims of adrenaline and we do stupid things."

Key U.S. officials said they will continue to support Mr. Calderón's military strategy.

"Mexico will begin to see a decrease in the violence," one senior anti-narcotics official said. "But we're not there yet. I can't say what's to come.."

liliff@dallasnews.com;

acorchado@dallasnews.com

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