The video's circulation was quickly followed by condemnation and pledges from the defense department to determine its authenticity and the Attorney General's Office to investigate the May 3 events in the town of Palmarito. A report on Tuesday said Mexico had the second-highest number of murders last year among countries considered in “armed conflicts”. In its statement, the defense ministry said soldiers had come under fire from vehicles in Palmarito and had detained some of the attackers. According to the videos posted online and Mexican media, the events took place during a clash between soldiers and suspected oil thieves in Palmarito in the central state of Puebla last week, in which four soldiers and six suspected criminals died. Soon afterward, soldiers drag a man who appears to be still alive from the dark area to a well-lit part of the shot, where he lies on the ground for about six minutes before a soldier steps toward him and appears to shoot him in the back of the head. Published online, the video shows a shot-up car coming to a halt, coming under further gunfire and eventually being surrounded by soldiers. The ministry said in a statement that prosecutors should “comprehensively clear up” whether the video indeed showed the soldier shooting the detained man after a clash last week between security forces and suspected criminals.
– A video released online appears to show a Mexican soldier executing a suspected oil thief at point-blank range as he lays defenseless on the ground. The heavily edited video, taken from a surveillance camera, shows a car coming under fire during what the military describes as a series of ambushes that left four soldiers and six suspects dead in Palmarito on May 3. As soldiers surround the vehicle, its occupants exit and are forced to lie down in front of the car. Soldiers are then seen dragging a suspect to the same spot. He appears injured but rolls from his back onto his front. Six minutes later, a soldier appears at the side of the frame and appears to shoot the man in the back of the head, per the AP. A dark stain spreads around him, reports Reuters. "There was already concern about the use of excessive force by the military. Now this video seems to give us the proof," says the chairwoman of Mexico's Senate Commission on Human Rights, per the Washington Post, which identifies the man shot as Raul Jimenez Martinez, 46. Mexico's defense ministry, however, says it will cooperate fully with an investigation launched by the attorney general's office on May 4. "Under no circumstances can conduct contrary to the law and human rights be justified," the ministry says. Residents of Palmarito have already taken to the streets to protest the deaths of the suspects, placing the blame on the army, though the defense ministry previously claimed the suspects used residents as human shields.