Human Rights Commission Finds Arbitrary Executions by Federal Police in Michoacan The Associated Press
go to original August 18, 2016

Friday, May 22, 2015. Federal police stand near the bodies of men who authorities say were suspected cartel gunmen at the Rancho del Sol. (Associated Press)

Mexico's federal police arbitrarily executed 22 people on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan last year, the country's human rights commission said Thursday.

National Human Rights Commission President Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez said there were also two cases of torture and two more deaths caused by excessive force.

"The investigation confirmed facts that show grave human rights violations attributable to public servants of the federal police," Gonzalez said.

One police officer was killed in the confrontation on May 22, 2015. The government said the dead were drug cartel suspects who were hiding out on a ranch in Tanhuato near the border with Jalisco state.

The commission also threw doubt on the government's explanation of what led to the clash in the first place. Federal police had said they encountered a truck and took fire from its passengers before being led to the ranch.

The commission's report said the government did not produce evidence that supported that account.

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