Mexico's human rights commission (CNDH) has received nearly 5,000 allegations of human rights violations against the military since 2007, including killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and rape.
Not good news at all.
I've spent a fair amount of time with generals in Mexico, who can be quite blunt about their disdain for human rights. Kudos to La Jornada for getting Brigadier General Carlos Bibiano Villa Castillo, Torreon’s Director of Public Security, to speak so candidly. (Translation courtesy of Mexicoblog of the CIP Americas Program).
Villa Castillo: The other day we were sent out to kill six bastards and we killed them. What’s the problem?
Reporter: Were they Zetas or Chapos?
Villa Castillo: Zetas.
Reporter: How do you know? You don’t interrogate them, or even talk with them.
Villa Castillo: We found out because they had stolen some weapons from us and we found them there.
Reporter: There are laws, General. You decide who ought to live or die…Don’t you think that God decides that?
Villa Castillo: Well, yeah, but you have to give him a little help.
Reporter: If one of these guys were to approach you to talk…
Villa Castillo: I’d kill him right there. I’d fuck him myself.
Reporter: Kill, and ask questions later?
Villa Castillo: That’s how it ought to be. It’s a code of honor.
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