Orders are given for two women who witnessed a massacre of 22 presumed criminals by the Mexican army to be released.

12/21/2014

Mexico: Tlatlaya Massacre Witnesses Released

Blood is seen on the wall of a building where 22 people, alleged members of a criminal group, were executed by soldiers of the Mexican Army, June 30, 2014 in Tlatlaya, Mexico. | Photo: AFP

A federal judge ordered the immediate release on Monday of two women who were arrested by the Mexican army in June this year, witnesses to the mass execution of 22 presumed organized crime members by the army in a warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya, State of Mexico.

The Fourth District Court in the State of Mexico ordered the dismissal of the criminal charges of illegal possession of firearms and cartridges for the exclusive use of the military.

The two women remain detained in the Women's Federal Social Rehabilitation Center in Tepic, Nayarit.

Last November, the then head of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Raul Plascencia said that the two women were innocent since they were not members of the alleged criminal group.

According to an investigation by the CNDH, the two women were tortured and sexually assaulted by state officials to change their version of the events they witnessed in Tlatlaya so as to correspond to the military’s version that the 22 dead were killed in a firefight with the army.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s office admitted that the presumed criminal group surrendered to a military patrol on June 30th, and were thus subsequently executed by military personell. Experts assert that the presumed criminals were also shot at very close range.

Seven soldiers have thus been indicted in the case, and remain in a military prison located in Mexico City, according to local authorities. However human rights defenders have called for further investigations, especially of military commanders for the wholesale extrajudicial killings.

source