19 IN MEXICAN ARMY HELD IN DEATHS OF 5

MEXICO CITY -- Three Mexican army officers and 16 soldiers were
ordered detained Monday in connection with the weekend shooting deaths
of two women and three children at a military checkpoint in the
western state of Sinaloa.

A statement by Mexico's secretary of Defense said the army officers
and troops would be confined to military prison in the city of
Mazatlan in connection with Saturday's shooting. The victims were in a
car with three other people when the driver allegedly disobeyed an
order to stop at the checkpoint in Joya de los Martinez, officials
said.

Three of the four women in the car were rural schoolteachers headed to
a wake. Defense officials said the troops involved were members of the
24th Motorized Infantry Regiment involved in "the permanent campaign
against drug trafficking."

The dead included Griselda Galaviz Barraza, 25, and her three
children, ages 7, 4 and 2. The Sinaloa state human rights ombudsman
has launched an investigation of the case.

President Felipe Calderon has sent the army into several Mexican
states to fight drug traffickers. This year, the federal human rights
ombudsman sharply criticized Calderon's decision to use troops in the
drug war.