A couple was traveling in their truck at kilometer 146 of the free highway Zapotlanejo-Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, when three elements of the National Guard (GN) began to chase the vehicle because they were driving at high speed and their vehicle did not have license plates.
After the truck did not heed the order to stop that the uniformed officers gave them, they fired their weapons against the vehicle. A minor, two months pregnant was hit and killed by the shots fired by the National Guard while performing the duties of traffic police.
In a document, the National Human Rights Commission ( CNDH ) established that the persecution ended “when the elements of the NG activated their firearms and, once the arrest was made, they realized that one of the people-a minor and pregnant woman- had lost her life because of the shots.”
Initially, the military institution justified the shootings with the argument that the driver of the truck had threatened them with a firearm, for which they allegedly shot at the vehicle’s tires. The National Guard never presented the alleged weapon carried by the driver as evidence in the case.
The surviving victim shared in a testimony that he did not carry any weapons and had not intimidated the agents. In addition to this, the autopsy performed on the body of the pregnant minor indicated that “she lost her life as a result of alterations in the lungs, spinal cord, and liver due to two wounds from penetrating firearm projectiles with an entry hole in the posterior hemithorax ”.
For this reason, the agency concluded that the actions of the national guards incurred an “illegal and excessive use of lethal force, which violated the human right to life, integrity, personal security, and legality, of the two victims of aggression”.
Likewise, the CNDH dismissed the statements made by the National Guard about its alleged attempt not to attack the victims and to shoot only at the tires. “The use of force was not gradual, nor was there an attempt to minimize the damage, and there was no evidence of gunshots to the tires of the truck, nor could they prove that the use of weapons was strictly unavoidable,” the report indicates.
Recommendation 70VG/2022 was addressed to Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, head of the Secretariat for Security and Citizen Protection ( SSPC ) to request that the people affected by this aggression, as well as the indirect victims, be included in the National Registry of Victims, so that the immediate repair of the damage caused can be carried out with fair compensation proportional to the seriousness of the facts.
Additionally, the CNDH requested that the SSPC collaborate with the presentation and follow-up of the complaint against the national guards identified as responsible for this lethal attack, as well as cooperation with the ministerial authorities to integrate the investigation folder opened by this case.
Of all the institutions that carry out tasks related to security and the use of force, the National Guard is the one that has the most complaints of human rights violations, with 309 records between January and August 2022.
A couple was traveling in their truck at kilometer 146 of the free highway Zapotlanejo-Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, when three elements . . .
