(Mexico City) – The Mexican Attorney General’s Office has failed to properly investigate allegations that soldiers shot and killed a 4-year-old girl in August 2022, Human Rights Watch said in a report, including visual evidence, published today.
The report, “Who Killed Heidi Pérez?” details the serious omissions and errors committed by prosecutors leading the investigation. The Attorney General’s Office failed to take basic steps to corroborate the military’s version of events, despite 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. The authorities also failed to follow up on a ballistics test result that showed a possible but inconclusive match between the bullet that killed the young girl and one of the weapons carried by a soldier that night.
“Nearly two years after Heidi Pérez’s killing, the Attorney General’s Office has done next to nothing to examine the serious inconsistencies in the military’s story about 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 just passively accept the Defense Ministry’s claims that soldiers had nothing to do with Pérez’s death. That is a recipe for impunity.”
Heidi Pérez was killed by shots fired into the rear windshield of her family’s car as they drove through downtown Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, on the night of August 31, 2022. Her family has said that soldiers fired at the car, causing the young girl’s death.
Human Rights Watch reviewed thousands of pages from the criminal investigation file, interviewed Heidi’s family and their lawyers, visited the scene of the shooting, and examined the car in which Heidi was riding. Researchers also consulted with independent forensic and ballistics experts and reviewed satellite and open-source imagery and security camera footage from the night Heidi was killed. The evidence reviewed in the case file includes witness statements, forensic studies, and photographs of the crime scene, vehicles, ammunition, and of the wounds.
The Defense Ministry has claimed Pérez was killed by unidentified members of a criminal group who allegedly opened fire on soldiers nearby. Human Rights Watch reviewed this claim but found it is not supported by any reliable evidence.
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero on August 1, describing the findings and urging him to take steps to rectify omissions in the investigation. He has not replied.
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Defense Ministry in February, asking for information about the events of the night of August 31, 2022, including a list of the soldiers and military vehicles in the area. The Directorate General for Human Rights replied in May, saying an internal investigation had determined that “military personnel did not violate human rights.”
Heidi’s mother, Cristina Pérez, said that in September 2022, a Defense Ministry official approached her to offer “support” if the family agreed to stop speaking publicly about the killing. She interpreted this to mean an offer of money, she told Human Rights Watch. She refused. “The only thing I want right now is the truth” she told Human Rights Watch. “I want the Attorney General’s Office to do their job.”
The military harassed the family after she refused the offer. She said that soldiers followed her family around Nuevo Laredo and began appearing outside their home at night. Eventually, she left Nuevo Laredo to protect her family from harassment.
Mexico’s Defense Ministry often offers financial compensation to families of people killed or injured by soldiers. From 2010 to 2022, journalists found more than 230 such agreements between the Defense Ministry and victims’ families. The Defense Ministry refused a Human Rights Watch request for information on 2023 agreements.
