Entire police force in Mexico arrested after mayor’s killing
THE entire police force in the Mexican town of Ocampo were disarmed and arrested for allegedly obstructing an investigation into the murder of the mayor ahead of countrywide elections on Sunday.
Fernando Angeles Juárez was killed on Thursday morning after three gunmen broke into the ranch where he lived just as he was preparing to start a day’s campaigning, local media reported.
More than 120 politicians have been killed across Mexico since September, when campaigning began ahead of the country’s July 1 general elections.
Voters are being ask to elect more than 3,000 local officials, as well as a new president and a new legislature.
Mr Angeles Juárez was the third politician killed in the state of Michoacán in a week. After his murder, Michoacán state forces went to Ocampo on Satur- day with a warrant to arrest Oscar González, the town’s public security secretary, for questioning, but were forced to retreat when local police officers under his control fired shots into the air. This prompted a second operation in the early hours of Sunday morning that ended with all 27 municipal officers, as well as González, in detention. Images aired on local media showed them lying face down with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, before they were taken to Morelia, the state capital, for questioning.
There are numerous cases of local police forces throughout Mexico being in the pay of drug cartels, though the Michoacán authorities have not made any explicit link between the arrest of the police and the murder of the candidate.
Corruption and security are the key issues in Sunday’s vote, dominated at a national level by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist presidential candidate who is expected to win power.