▲ The ministers of the SCJN will review on January 7 the challenge by the defense of a soldier to the sentence imposed for the murder of a civilian, perpetrated in 2012.Photo Luis Castillo
Iván Evair Saldaña
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, December 26, 2025, p. 6
The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) will analyze on January 7 the case of the extrajudicial execution of a civilian attributed to members of the Mexican Army in February 2012, during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, in Jungapeo, Michoacán.
The matter will be addressed through a project by Minister Lenia Batres Guadarrama, as part of the direct protection under review 3640/2025 promoted by an infantry soldier sentenced along with five other soldiers for the aggravated homicide of a civilian, who was deprived of his freedom, tortured during an interrogation, and then abandoned his body. The togada proposes that the sentence be confirmed.
According to the court file, on February 6, 2012, a group of at least 10 soldiers arrived in two vans at the victim’s home, in El Cerrito del Muerto, Jungapeo, broke into the house and forcibly removed her to an official vehicle. In the same operation, two other civilians were detained, beaten, tortured and then released.
The military took the victim to a solitary area in order to interrogate her and obtain “at all costs,” by orders of their commanders, information about alleged illicit activities in the area. During the interrogation, they applied physical and psychological torture: they immobilized the civilian, covered his face with rags and plastic bags, and poured water on him to prevent him from breathing, until a sergeant strangled him. A health official tried to revive him, without success.
Then they burned the body’s face and head to prevent identification and abandoned it in a ravine; the clothes were discarded elsewhere. The body was located on February 7, 2012; The autopsy determined asphyxiation due to strangulation and two days later he was identified by relatives.
For the events, six soldiers received final sentences. A lieutenant was sentenced to 30 years and six months in prison; a second sergeant, 36 years, three months and 16 days; an infantry corporal, 31 years and three months; a health soldier, 23 years and three months; an infantry soldier, 22 years and six months, and a signal corporal; to nine months, the latter for hiding the body.
The infantryman challenged his sentence; He alleged violations of due process, that the legality of the evidence against him and the independence of the investigative body were not analyzed, and the Minnesota Protocol was omitted to be exhaustively applied to rule out evidence contamination, which – he stated – prevented proving the crime of homicide.
However, a collegiate court considered that the sentence was duly founded and motivated, excluding illegal evidence, and that there were sufficient elements to prove homicide and criminal responsibility, without violation of human rights.
When analyzing the case in Court, the Batres project declares the review inadmissible because it deals with questions of mere legality and proposes confirming the sentence without analyzing the merits of the matter.
