By KELIN DILLON

According to reports from Sunday, Aug. 14, five men arrested for involvement in Thursday’s lethal attack on Ciudad Juárez, in which at least 11 people were killed, were sentenced to preventative detention for no more than two years in prison as they continue to be investigated for the crimes of attempted homicide and damages.

The accused individuals now claim that they were tortured by the agents who arrested them, invoking the international torture documentations guidelines known as the Istanbul Protocol in turn.

Likewise, the five defendants requested that their hearing be held within 144 hours of their arrest as per constitutional provisions, pushing the ruling judge to set the group’s hearing for Friday, Aug. 19, at 9:30 in the morning.

Many across Mexico have expressed concerns about the duration of the alleged criminal’s preventative detention, as many of Mexico’s most high-profile white-collar cases have resulted in more lengthy stints of preventative detention than the purported violent murderers are set to face.

Take Rosario Robles for example, Mexico’s former head of the Secretariat of Social Development (Sedesol), who’s accused of diverting $250 million from the government in a plan known as the “Master Fraud,” has been residing in preventative detention for three years since her arrest in 2019, where she is expected to remain indefinitely while awaiting trial.

Or Emilio Lozoya, former CEO of state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), who remains in preventative detention over his role in the multi-billion-dollar Odebrecht scandal with no release date in sight.

The niece of Mexican Attorney General (FGR) Alejandro Gertz Manero has likewise (and controversially) been subjected to indefinite preventative detention by her uncle, where she is set to remain for the time being.

According to the judicial authorities in Juárez, however, the five alleged criminals involved in last week’s mass murder event will only face two years of preventative detention at the maximum, compared to the harsher sentences dolled out to their white-collar counterparts.

Meanwhile, as the investigation into violence on Mexico’s northern border continues, Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero encouraged her constituents to “pay their bills” to the organized crime members extorting them, a move that will likely exacerbate the region’s enduring violence crisis rather than diminish it.