Mexico army ordered soldiers to kill criminals: rights group

A Mexican military document shows soldiers were ordered to kill criminals days before the alleged extrajudicial execution of several gang suspects last year, a human rights group said Thursday.

The Prodh human rights center said in a report that high-ranking military officers must be investigated for their responsibility in what has come to be known as the Tlatlaya case.

A military order dated June 11, 2014, instructs troops to "operate at night in massive form and reduce activities during the day with the goal of taking down criminals in dark hours, as most crimes are committed at that hour."

The Prodh center said the military uses the Spanish euphemism "abatir" (take down") to mean "kill."

Nineteen days after the order was issued, the army reported on June 30 that it had killed 22 gang suspects in a shootout inside a warehouse in Tlatlaya, a town in central Mexico State, while only one soldier was injured -- a lopsided toll that raised questions.

But the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was among those killed later reported that soldiers had executed several people who had surrendered.

The attorney general's office has since charged three soldiers with the murder of eight people, while four others, including an officer, were charged with failing to respect public service.

But the governmental National Human Rights Commission said in October that at least 12 and maybe as many as 15 people were extrajudicially killed.