Javier Cortés Was Shot from Less than 28 Inches Away

The State Attorney’s Office Confirms that Killing of the Youth in Texcoco May 3 Was Intentional Homicide

By Israel Davila
La Jornada

May 18, 2006

TOLUCA, MEXICO, MAY 17. 2006: The homicide of young Javier Cortés Santiago during the clash between Atenco residents and state and federal police on May 3 was not accidental but rather intentional announced Mexico state attorney Abel Villicaña Estrada today. The gun that too the boy’s life, he said, was fired less than 70 centimeters (28 inches) from his body.

The attorney reported that eyewitness testimony to the murder had been obtained in order to determine, with scientific certainty, who fired the .38 caliber gun that killed the youth, “because we still don’t know if it came from the people or from the police.”

The attorney revealed that the forensic evidence shows Cortés Santiago was the victim of “a direct and intentional homicide, because this was not a stray bullet. The shot was discharged at a distance of less than 70 centimeters between the shooter and the victim, and the youth made defensive movements because he lifted his arm and the projectile passed through the arm and introduced itself into his chest.”

With respect to the video that the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center released last May 10, in which Mexican state police agents acknowledge that the bullet which took the youth’s life was fired by state agents, the state attorney said that the material had already been requested as evidence by the Public Defender’s Office (Ministerio Público).

The attorney from the state of Mexico (the state that borders Mexico city, and in which Atenco and Texcoco are located) assured reporters that the video “lacks legal validity” and “is of no use to the investigation into the boy’s death,” and added that the Mexico state authorities believe the video to be a fake, as it does not give the identity of the police speaking and the voices were distorted.

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