MEXICO CITY: On the frontlines of Mexico's drug war for years, the military is pushing back at attempts to put soldiers on trial for civilian charges as serious as murder.
Armed forces in Mexico have faced accusations of abuse, torture and illegal detentions ever since former president Felipe Calderon deployed soldiers against drug cartels in 2006.
Until 2012, they were exempt from civilian justice. But the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the military trial system was the wrong place for crimes against civilians.
The reform is facing a major test with the recent civilian charges lodged against seven soldiers in connection with the killing of 22 gang suspects in June in Tlatlaya, 240 kilometers (149 miles) south of Mexico City.
In unusually blunt remarks this week that raised eyebrows, Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, an army general, slammed the trials against soldiers.
"We will offer our best efforts at the service of citizens without fear of unfair trials, some of them without a doubt wrong, lacking foundation, malicious," Cienfuegos said.
"The national armed forces don't deserve it."
President Enrique Pena Nieto has kept the troops on the ground since taking office in December 2012, saying they will stay in the streets until Mexicans feel safe again.
Now, he is confronted with a human rights headache. On top of the alleged army massacre, he faces nation-wide ire over the presumed murder of 43 college students by a gang working with corrupt police officers.
The military has been under fire over its handling of the Tlatlaya case after initially saying that all 22 suspects were killed in a shootout.
But an anonymous witness later contradicted the official version of events, telling Esquire magazine that 21 of the suspects, including her teenage daughter, were killed after they had surrendered.
Officials seem to disagree on exactly what transpired.
Prosecutors have charged seven soldiers with crimes against public service. Three of them face more serious charges of murdering eight of the 22 suspects and altering the crime scene.
The government's National Human Rights Commission issued a report saying that at least 12 of the suspects were killed after giving themselves up.
Before civilian prosecutors stepped in, the military had arrested eight soldiers over the Tlatlaya case on dereliction of duty charges.
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