Officers of Mexico's Federal Police executed 22 civilians during a May 2015 operation on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan, the independent National Human Rights Commission said Thursday. Police committed grave violations of human rights at Rancho del Sol, commission chairman Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez told a press conference. Authorities have maintained that the deaths at Rancho del Sol took place in the course of a gunfight between police and suspects. The human rights commission also found fault with the actions of investigators from the Michoacan Attorney General's Office, who deviated from protocol and mishandled ballistics evidence. Responding to the rights commission document, the chairman of Mexico's National Security Committee rejected the characterization of arbitrary executions and defended the actions of police.

Source: Fox News August 18, 2016 23:15 UTC