Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Federales who shot two Embassy staff moved to jail


MEXICO CITY — It's still too early to tell how Mexican judicial officers will come down in a case of twelve federal police who opened fire on a U.S. Embassy vehicle with diplomatic plates last Friday, wounding two Americans.

Mexican and U.S. officials have offered sketchy official accounts of the shooting that left a Mexican Navy captain who was riding in the vehicle unharmed. The three were headed for a Naval base near Cuernevaca.
Detained under a form of house arrest for 40 days on suspicion of abusing their authority, a judge ordered the 12 policemen held in a federal lockup following a hearing Monday.
The charge of abusing their authority can entail both criminal wrongdoing and extreme negligence. It leaves open the possibility of both a deliberate attack on the Americans by corrupt officers and a gross error by well-intentioned but trigger-happy police operating in a dangerous area.
Either way, the ambiguous situation brings little credence to the popular idea that the federales are the last hope of containing the sweeping influence of organized crime on Mexican government.

No comments:

Post a Comment