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.
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