Helicopter opens fire on school in Mexico

Witnesses say that a military helicopter yesterday opened fire on a secondary school wounding a 13 year-old pupil in Mexico.

Daniela Oyervidez received a bullet wound to her right leg during recreation and received medical attention in the playground. According to fellow pupils at the school the bullet that hit Daniela appeared to come from gunmen who opened fire from a black helicopter that was hovering over the school. The gunshots were allegedly fired from the helicopter at a convoy of suspicious looking vehicles that were travelling along the street on which the school was situated.

Despite the witness testimonies The Secretary of Education although confirming that Daniela had indeed been shot, insisted that the bullet actually came from the convoy of vehicles. Pupils from the school also insisted that the playground was littered with spent cartridges from a large calibre weapon. 

The Secretary of Education stated that after interviewing the medics that treated Daniela, teachers and family members they rejected the idea that the bullet had come from the helicopter, stating also that the calibre of the bullet was not one used by the military.

On the 19th of March two postgraduate students of the Technological Institute of Monterrey were shot dead during the persecution of group of cartel gunmen near their university campus in the north of the country. Immediately after the shooting the government claimed that the two students were linked with organised crime and it appeared that weapons were planted on their bodies. Family members and students dispute this claiming that the military had shot the two students and then tried to cover up the killings. The subsequent government investigation concluded that the students were indeed shot by gunmen linked to organised crime and not the authorities, although many in Mexico still believe that this was not the case.

The nature of which the “War on Drugs” is being fought puts the lives of many innocent citizens in danger, the threat coming not from the drugs cartels but the security forces. Because of the lack of transparency in the judicial system that is meant to investigate such cases, and the unwillingness of the “War on Drugs” major bankroller, the United States, to denounce such activity soldiers and police officers almost have a green-light to open fire indiscriminately in public places as the likelihood that they will be punished is minimal.

This does not only happen in Mexico but in many of the less-developed countries where illicit drugs are trafficked through to reach consumers in the US or European market. The events that unfolded in Jamaica in the last week serve only as more proof of how innocent people are finding themselves in the firing line due to the perseverance of a flawed policy.