Mexican soldiers detained as torture video surfaces

MEXICO CITY: Authorities have arrested a Mexican army captain and a soldier as a video emerged showing a woman being tortured by troops and a federal police officer, officials said yesterday.

The attorney general’s office has launched a torture investigation while military authorities have charged the captain and a female soldier with disobeying orders.

The jarring clip circulating online shows a female soldier placing the tip of her assault rifle on the woman’s head as she sits barefoot on a dirt floor. A federal police officer then tightly wraps a plastic bag around the woman’s head while one of the officials asks her, “Are you going to talk?”

The woman, who is sobbing throughout the ordeal, answers: “Who’s Maria? I don’t know her.” It is the latest allegation of abuse committed by the authorities in Mexico.

The defense ministry said the incident took place in February 2015 in the town of Ajuchitlan del Progreso, in the southern state of Guerrero, but that it only learned about it in December.

The ministry said in a statement that the captain and the female soldier, who is part of the military police, were detained in January on charges of disobeying orders.

The attorney general’s office issued a separate statement saying that its special torture investigations unit began its inquiry on Jan 7. — AFP