El Diario.mx (December 28, 2014)
Source: Reforma. Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat.
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Soldiers guarding execution site |
Distrito Federal.-- The military intrusion triggered an uproar inside the warehouse. Some of the armed young men were roused from their sleep by the operation.
"Surrender, sons of bitches! Mexican Army!", they were yelling outside.
"We're being hit by the contras (the rival gang)!", yelled one of the sicarios (gunmen).
"They are not contras, they're military!" said another.
"Wake everybody up!", yelled another young man.
"One of the guys said they should surrender, but another person said no, that they were going to get killed anyway, it was then that the people inside began to fire towards the exterior, hearing the Army yelling at them to surrender and to come out one by one with their hands on the back of their heads," recalls Cinthya Estefany Nava Lopez, one of the two sex workers who were with the alleged criminals, according to statements given before the PGR (Attorney General), and which Reforma had access to.
The soldiers lighted the entrance to the warehouse from their Cheyenne and fired their bursts.
Patricia Campos Morales, the other prostitute, was awakened by the military gunfire.
"The sicarios that were inside the warehouse begin to fire and one of them yells 'man down', that shooting lasted between 5 and 10 minutes, after that the sicarios yelled, 'Don't shoot, we give up.'
"Then one sicario went out and the soldiers fired at him, and he managed to come back inside; he had gone out to tell the soldiers that they had surrendered and the soldiers told them, 'come out, sons of bitches, and we'll let you live!', at that point the sicarios began to surrender. Subsequently, the soldiers asked if there was anybody else, and that they would give us 10 minutes to come out", narrates Campos in her statement.
When the shooting started, Mrs. Clara Gomez ran from the corner where she was sitting up to a white pickup that was on the right side of the building and climbed into the passenger side.
"That's when I realize, thanks to the light (from the soldiers) that my daughter was lying face down, beside another boy, also face down, right by the open passenger side door of the truck I just mentioned. I heard both of them moaning, so then I get closer to look at my daughter and I touch her to see if she shows vital signs and I realize that she is still alive."
"Right then, the shooting starts again and I move to the back of the pickup where I had been a few seconds before," the mother of Erika Gomez told the office of the Mexican Attorney General (PGR; Procuraduria General de la Republica).
Cinthya Estefany Nava recounts that the soldiers reiterated their warning.
"They yelled that they would give them 10 minutes to come out, and if they didn't, they would kill them like dogs, that's when I heard a voice from inside the warehouse say to surrender and go out, and after a 10 minute period, I heard no more shots, only moaning", said the young woman.
"Yes, we surrender!" yelled one of the sicarios.
The crossfire ended and, for the PGR, the casualties up to that moment were one wounded soldier and 14 armed civilians killed.
Lined up and executed
Lieutenant Ezequiel Rodriguez Martinez has declared to the PGR that, after the sicarios surrendered, he was the one who ordered three soldiers to enter the warehouse.
"I ordered Sgt. Second Class Roberto Acevedo Lopez and two troopers, Fernando Quintero Millan and Leobardo Hernandez Leonides to reconnoiter the inside of the warehouse, where they stayed between 3 to 5 minutes, reporting 22 dead", declared the Infantry Lieutenant.
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