Mexico's rights agency faults army in fuel-theft killings

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says soldiers executed two men and planted rifles on their bodies during a 2017 shootout between authorities and fuel thieves in the central state of Puebla.

A total of six civilians and four soldiers were killed in the confrontation that erupted in the town of Palmarito when authorities tried to arrest people who had drilled illegal taps into state-owned pipelines.

The governmental rights agency recommended Wednesday that the army pay reparations to the victims’ families, and it said other people suffered abuses after they were detained.

Some of the killings were captured on video. One showed a suspect who played dead and then got up and shot a soldier in the back. Another shows a soldier appearing to execute a suspect lying on the ground.