Mexico: Flawed investigation into alleged killing of child by soldiers

(Mexico City) – Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office failed to properly investigate allegations that soldiers shot and killed a four-year-old girl in August 2022, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today, including photographic evidence.

The report, “Who Killed Heidi Pérez?” details serious failures and errors by prosecutors leading the investigation. The Attorney General’s Office did not take basic steps to confirm the military’s version of events, even though there were irregularities in the evidence presented by soldiers and inconsistencies between the military’s timeline and video evidence from the night of the shooting, Human Rights Watch found. Authorities also did not address the results of a ballistics test that showed a possible but not definitive match between the bullet that killed the young girl and one of the weapons a soldier carried that night.

“Nearly two years after the murder of Heidi Pérez, the Attorney General's Office has done virtually nothing to investigate the serious inconsistencies in the military's account of what happened on the night of August 31, 2022,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The Attorney General's Office should not passively accept the Defense Department's claims that soldiers had nothing to do with Pérez's death. That is a recipe for impunity.”

Heidi Pérez was killed by gunshots into the rear window of her family's car as they drove through downtown Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas, on the night of August 31, 2022. Her family said soldiers fired shots at the car, causing the young girl's death.

Human Rights Watch reviewed thousands of pages of the investigation file, interviewed Heidi's family and her lawyers, visited the crime scene, and examined the car Heidi was in. Investigators also consulted independent forensic and ballistics experts and reviewed satellite and open-source imagery and surveillance camera footage from the night Heidi was killed. Evidence reviewed in the file includes witness statements, forensic examinations, and photographs of the crime scene, vehicles, ammunition, and wounds.

The Defense Ministry claims that Pérez was killed by unidentified members of a criminal group who allegedly fired on soldiers nearby. Human Rights Watch investigated this claim but concluded that it is not supported by any reliable evidence.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero on August 1 outlining the findings and urging him to take steps to correct failures in the investigation. He has not responded.

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Ministry of Defense in February requesting information about the events of the night of August 31, 2022, including a list of soldiers and military vehicles in the area. The Directorate General for Human Rights responded in May, saying that an internal investigation had found that “military personnel did not violate human rights.”

Heidi's mother, Cristina Pérez, said that in September 2022, a Defense Ministry official approached her and offered “support” if the family agreed to stop speaking publicly about the murder. She interpreted this as an offer of money, she told Human Rights Watch. She declined. “The only thing I want right now is the truth,” she told Human Rights Watch. “I want the Attorney General's Office to do its job.”

After she turned down the offer, the family was harassed by the military. She said that the soldiers followed her family in Nuevo Laredo and showed up at their house at night. She eventually left Nuevo Laredo to protect her family from harassment.

The Mexican Ministry of Defense often offers financial compensation to the families of people killed or injured by soldiers. Between 2010 and 2022, journalists found more than 230 such agreements between the Defense Ministry and the victims' families. The Defense Ministry declined a Human Rights Watch request for information on the 2023 agreements.