Mexico rights agency says soldiers fired ‘without reason’ in border city in 2022, killing a man

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s governmental human rights agency said Wednesday that soldiers opened fire “without reason” a year ago in the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo, killing a man.

The National Human Rights Commission said soldiers had argued that the occupants of a pickup truck had opened fire first on a road in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

But the commission said no gunshot residue was found on any of the four people in the truck following the confrontation on Nov. 4, 2022.

The commission said none of the victims had fired a gun, and issued a call for the Defense Department to cooperate in the investigation and take action to compensate the survivors.

It would hardly be the first time that soldiers had engaged in such acts in Nuevo Laredo, where troops regularly come under fire from the Northeast drug cartel, which dominates the city.

In February, the army acknowledged that four soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck in Nuevo Laredo, killing five men and wounding another. The soldiers were later charged with homicide.