Probe launched into alleged Mexico police killing
Mexican authorities have launched an investigation into the alleged killing of 16 unarmed civilians by federal police forces in January.
The probe was launched after Laura Castellanos, a prominent Mexican journalist, published a report saying federal police opened fire on people while clashing with former rural militiamen in the western city of Apatzingan.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told reporters on Monday that, “We hope that the attorney general’s office will draw its own conclusions and make them known.”
Chong added that Mexican prosecutors and the federal police’s internal affairs department are investigating the case.
“We are waiting for the results of the investigation and, with that, we will know what really happened that day in Apatzingan,” he said.
The National Security Commission said it received a video that appears to show “an excessive use of force or abuse of authority by federal police officers” in Apatzingan.
Citing 39 anonymous witness accounts, videos and audio recordings, Castellanos also said in its report that police officers opened fire on civilians in two shooting incidents. Officials said that at least 44 people were arrested during the incidents.
The Mexican government is already under criticism over alleged army killings of gang suspects in central Mexico last year and the disappearance of of over 40 students in southern Guerrero State.
Mexico has witnessed nationwide violent protests in recent months over the disappearance of the students amid allegations of political and police corruption.
On September 26, 2014, some 43 student teachers disappeared in the city of Iguala in Guerrero following an attack by police forces suspected of having links to drug gangs.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged that his administration will rid the country of gang violence, which has claimed about 80,000 lives in Mexico since 2007. In spite of the promise, the steady stream of killings has continued unabated.
The government says it has a database of 26,000 missing people in connection with drug-related violence.
DB/HJL/HMV
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