Mexican students shot by military

Two students were gunned down by Mexican soldiers in a prestigious private university in Monterrey, Mexico on Friday. Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Arredondo Verdugo, two students enrolled at the Technical Studies Institute (TEC) were last seen studying late on Thursday on the university campus, only a few hours later they were shot dead as suspected gunmen working for a drug trafficking cartel .

According to a government press release on Friday, members of the Mexican army and cartel gunmen exchanged fire in the proximity of the university and some of the gunmen fled into the university campus. At the same time more gunmen arrived in pick up trucks and opened fire on the soldiers with high powered rifles and grenades. The situation was eventually put under control after the arrival of military reinforcements. Originally military spokesman said that 2 gunmen had been killed and one soldier had been injured, four high powered rifles with a large amount of ammunition were also found at the scene. However later the bodies were identified by the families of the victims and it turned out they were both postgraduate students with excellent academic records and scholarships. Later the rector of the university made public that a mistake had been made and the two individuals killed on Friday were in fact students at the university. Another student who was trapped inside the university when the gunfight was taking place documented the ordeal on Twitter. One of his entries clearly states that he overheard on the radio of a university security guard that one student was injured. The soldiers later confiscated the security guard’s radio as well as the tapes from the CCTV cameras.

There is still a large amount of confusion about the incident and a group on Facebook has been set up calling for justice to be served; a proper investigation into the case and an apology from the military. According to some sources there was evidence that the students had been beaten and that weapons had been placed near their bodies in order to give the impression that they had been armed.

Social networking sites now fulfil an important role for Mexicans as the violent drug war rages through their country. Such is the threat of violence and level of corruption that many cases of cartel violence are not reported and some politicians dumb down the situation. These social networking sites are vital in informing not only Mexicans but the international community about how the drug trade affects daily life in Mexico. Over the weekend at least 30 main highways in the north of the country were barricaded with burning cars by cartel gunmen in order to carry out assassinations unhindered by army patrols.

As the situation stands it is unlikely that there will be a fair investigation into the latest shooting as such investigations take place in closed military courts and it’s rare that any military personnel are prosecuted. It is due to this that the military can act with impunity and in the last few years there have been many accusations of abuse perpetrated by the military including rape, robbery, torture and murder.

Please join this Facebook group and stand up for justice.