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missing men had told the Navy that “they had been forced, under threat, to work for the
Zetas criminal group, as a result of which [the six victims] were asked to cooperate [with
the Navy] to provide information on the matter; the individuals were offered protection
during the duration of Navy forces in that location. Then they were transferred to the town
of Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, for their safety.” 28
Among the many contradictions between this and earlier accounts is the fact that, while
the Navy’s previous account alleged that the victims had no connection to any organized
crime group, 29 the latter account said the victims had been forced to work for the Zetas. It
is also unclear why the Navy would allegedly transport the six men to the bus station in
Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, “for their safety.” None of the victims lived in Miguel
Alemán. 30 Moreover, it is a city notorious for being one of the most violent in the state (for
example, there were several public shootouts involving the military and armed criminal
groups shortly before this incident), and for having a significant presence of organized
crime groups, in particular the Zetas. 31
Human Rights Watch interviewed relatives of two other men who were arbitrarily detained
on the same night as Martínez; these relatives corroborated the chronology of detentions,
and described similar tactics. Yadira Alejandra Martínez Ramírez, 23, for example, said her
husband, Diego Omar Guillén Martínez, 24, was detained late on the night of June 4, 2011,
by eight armed, masked men in Navy uniforms who forced their way into his parents’ house
and took him without explanation. 32 None of the six men have been seen since that night.
The disappearances carried out on June 4 and 5, 2011, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, are
similar in important respects to several other disappearances carried out in the
28 Ibid.
29 “The Navy Provides Information about the Situation of Individuals Allegedly Detained by Navy Personnel,” SEMAR, press
release 216/2011, July 1, 2011.
30 Human Rights Watch interview with Raymundo Ramos, director of Nuevo Laredo Comité de Derechos Humanos de Nuevo
Laredo, and with the families of four of the victims, Monterrey, Nuevo León, June 5, 2012.
31 For examples of violent incidents in Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, leading up to the Navy’s supposed transfer of the victims
to that city “for their security,” see Castillo, Gustavo, “Hitmen and Soldiers Battle in Tamaulipas; 2 Dead and 11 Detained”
(Sicarios y militares se enfrentan en Tamaulipas; 2 muertos y 11 detenidos), La Jornada, April 22, 2011,
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2011/04/22/politica/003n1pol (accessed August 28, 2012); “The Army Frees Six Kidnap
Victims after Shootout in Tamaulipas” (El Ejército libera a seis personas secuestradas tras tiroteo en Tamaulipas), CNN, May
5, 2011, http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional/2011/05/05/el-ejercito-libera-a-seis-personas-secuestradas-tras-tiroteo-entamaulipas
(accessed August 28, 2012).
32 Human Rights Watch interview with Yadira Alejandra Martínez Ramírez, Monterrey, Nuevo León, June 5, 2012.
MEXICO’S DISAPPEARED 24