We’re accustomed to reading stories about the threats to innocent life posed by Mexican drug lords. But another big challenge in Mexico is the lawlessness of the Mexican….military. The UK Daily Mail reports on yet another case where Mexican soldiers murdered an American and tried to frame it as “self-defense.” In this case justice will apparently be done, due to some hard work by the victim’s parents, who got a lot of help. How many cases don’t we ever hear about? An excerpt:
“Three Mexican soldiers have been charged with killing an American and trying to frame him to make it appear he had fired first.
The charges come after a legal struggle by New Yorker Joseph Proctor’s family to prove he was murdered in cold blood.
It is the latest in a series of disturbing cases where the Mexican military has been accused of killing innocent civilians and then faking evidence in cover-ups.
The most recent controversy came after Proctor had moved with his girlfriend to start a new life near Acapulco, Mexico.
He told girlfriend Liliana Gil Vargas that he was popping out to a local convenience store for supplies.
But he never returned and the next morning the 32-year-old was found dead in his crashed car – riddled with bullets and an automatic rifle in his hands.
Police claimed he died in a gun battle with an army patrol that insisted the American opened fire at them.
His devastated mother, Donna Proctor, has been fighting through Mexico’s secretive military justice system ever since to learn what really happened on the night of August 22.
It took weeks of pressuring U.S. diplomats and congressmen for help, but she finally got an answer.
Three soldiers have now been charged with killing her son. Two have been charged with planting the assault rifle in his hands and claiming falsely that he fired first, according to a Mexican Defense Department document sent to her through the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.”
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