SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The body of the last of seven Mexican National Guard cadets who drowned off the coast of Ensenada was recovered from the water on Tuesday after searchers spotted the uniform from the air.
Despite a high-surf warning issued for the region two weeks ago, a total of 11 cadets were ordered into the water in what was originally called a training exercise in the ocean about 65 miles south of the border.
Initially, all 11 soldiers were declared missing but four made it back to shore.
Mexico’s National Guard, Navy and lifeguards mounted a search for the other seven, all of whom were reportedly in their last weeks of training about to graduate from the National Guard Academy.
Earlier this week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said the military leader who sent the cadets into the surf is now in custody.
Investigators have indicated there was no training involved and was, instead, a hazing incident ordered by the officer who has been arrested.
Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Mexico’s National Defense Secretary, said the person who forced the men into the water is now “the subject of a military investigation, accused of disobedience, abuse of authority and generating the deaths of the seven cadets.”
Sandoval said the officer is facing two years for disobeying orders, 10 for abuse of authority and 30 to 60 years for the deaths that took place.
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda called the incident “an accident as a result of a rogue wave that swept the men out to sea.”
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