[Shadow_Group] Fw: Angry Mexican Mob

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rense.com

Angry Mexican Mob 
Burns Policemen Alive
By Traci Carl 
Associated Press
11-25-4
 
MEXICO CITY -- The images were chilling: A young man, his face bloody and
swollen, struggled to tell a television reporter that he was an
undercover federal agent, shortly before an angry mob burned him and
another officer alive on camera. 
  
The horrific footage from an incident that took place on Tuesday has
sparked a debate on growing vigilante justice in Mexico, where police are
viewed as inept at best and corrupt at worst and where many say they must
take matters into their own hands. 
  
Tuesday's killings occurred amid rumours that children had been kidnapped
from an elementary school in San Juan Ixtayopan, a neighbourhood of
35,000 on Mexico City's southern outskirts. When residents saw three men
taking photos and staking out the school on Tuesday evening, they took
action. One after another, they set off dozens of crude, rooftop bullhorn
alarms that serve as backup security. Neighbours heeding the alarms
poured into the streets, where they cornered then beat the men.
Surrounding crowds cheered and shouted obscenities as blood splattered. 
  
Reporters arrived and the assailants pushed the victims before television
cameras so they could be interviewed. Barely conscious and struggling to
talk, they nodded and gave one-word answers when asked whether they were
federal agents. 
  
As television helicopters hovered overhead, police arrived. One man was
rescued, carried away unconscious. 
  
The other two were bathed in gasoline and set ablaze, their charred
bodies left in the street as dozens of people milled about. 
  
Federal police director Admiral Jose Luis Figueroa said the three men
were plainclothes agents who had been sent to the neighbourhood to
investigate drug dealing near the school. 
  
Police were searching yesterday for those responsible for instigating the
violence but had made no arrests. 
  
Yet public debate focused on the police. 
  
Many questioned why it had taken riot officers hours to arrive. Others
said vigilante justice is to be expected in a country where the police
are infamous for seeking bribes and often implicated in the same crimes
they are supposed to prevent. 
  
There appeared to be little remorse in San Juan Ixtayopan, a picturesque
community of small concrete homes tucked into pine-covered hills at the
foot of a snow-capped volcano. 
  
Under the watchful eyes of nearly 300 uniformed federal police officers
yesterday, residents in the town's central plaza discussed the events of
the previous night as vendors loudly hawked newspapers carrying photos of
the victims and boldface headlines screaming LYNCHED. 
  
Many people were reluctant to speak to reporters or denied they were
present during the beatings. But others complained that police had
ignored initial reports of the kidnappings, and said they did not regret
what had happened. 
  
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TPStory/LAC/20041125/MEXICO25/TPInternational/Americas 


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