Kin of Mexican students slain by army in 2010 still waiting for justice

Monterrey, Mexico, Mar 16 (EFE).- The families of two young men slain here more than a decade ago by the Mexican army while attending the country’s most prestigious private university said Thursday that they are hoping to see the killers convicted this year.

“God willing, I believe that this year we can have the conviction,” Rosa Elvira Mercado, the mother of Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso, said during a press conference in Monterrey.

She noted that two former soldiers involved in the case were recently apprehended, bringing to five the total number of suspects in custody for the killings, while another remains a fugitive.

On March 19, 2010, Jorge Mercado and Javier Francisco Arredondo Verdugo were fatally shot on the campus of Tecnologico de Monterrey and authorities claimed at the time that the two young men were killers-for-fire.

Later, however, the public learned that Mercado and Arredondo were honor students at the university and in March 2019, Government Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero apologized for their deaths on behalf of the Mexican state.

Rosa Mercado, who was accompanied by husband Joel Medina and by Reina Aide Arredondo Verdugo, the sister of Javier Arredondo, said that the families were gratified to see Genero Garcia Luna, who was Mexico’s public safety secretary in 2010, convicted in the United States of taking bribes from drug cartels.

“What we have always prayed to God for was complete justice and we see that God is truly delivering complete justice,” she said.

She said that the militarization of law enforcement during the 2006-2012 term of President Felipe Calderon – who appointed Garcia Luna – caused the deaths of thousands of innocents.

“The death of the boys was really part of theater, a sham that they (the Calderon administration) were performing to fight drug trafficking,” Rosa Mercado said. “The truth being that they were inside all that filth.” EFE

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