MEXICO CITY, (APP/AFP) – Five Mexican marines have been detained in connection with the 2013 disappearance of a man in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, the navy said on Sunday.
The troops were jailed in a military prison after a court charged them on March 8 and 9 with “forced disappearance” — a crime meaning that an official illegally detained or abducted someone.
The statement said the marines were detained over a case dating from August 3, 2013, in Nuevo Leon.
It did not name the victim but Amnesty International said earlier this week that the marines were suspects in the disappearance of Armando del Bosque Villarreal, a 33-year-old man who was found two months after he was detained by troops.
The marines allegedly arrested the man as he drove in the town of Colombia and took him to a temporary navy facility, according to Amnesty.
When the man’s father went looking for him, a captain initially told him that his son was being interrogated. But one hour later, the captain denied that del Bosque was there, Amnesty said.
Del Bosque’s body was found in October 2013 with bullet wounds some two kilometers (one mile) from the navy facility.
It is the latest allegation of brutality carried out by Mexican government forces. Human rights groups say police and troops have committed a slew of abuses since the military was deployed to combat drug cartels in 2006.
On Thursday, the defense ministry said a soldier was detained in connection with the disappearance and murder of a civilian in the eastern state of Veracruz in February.
Troops are also suspected of the extrajudicial killing of at least eight of 22 gang suspects killed in a warehouse in central Mexico in June 2014.