After Michoacán shootout, Mexican security forces accused of more extrajudicial killings
Witnesses say federal police murdered several unarmed civilians during the shootout in Apatzingan.
Reports in the Mexican press indicate that security forces may have executed several unarmed civilians during a confrontation in the western state of Michoacán last week.
Although authorities in Michoacán say nine people were killed, there is strong evidence of at least 11 fatalities after the Mexican army and the federal police carried out an operation to reclaim control of the city hall in Apatzingán early on January 6.
Alfredo Castillo, the federal security commissioner for Michoacán, claims that the police only killed two people, while six others were hit by crossfire and one was run over, but several newspapers have published testimony from eyewitnesses who allege that federal agents murdered a number of unarmed detainees.
The confrontation began in the early hours of the morning when security forces arrested 44 people who had been occupying the city hall since late December and decommissioned 13 firearms and 23 stolen vehicles. The occupiers are believed to have been members of Los Viagras, a group of vigilantes accused of having formed their own drug gang.
According to Castillo, a convoy of soldiers and federal agents then came under attack as they were driving away the seized vehicles shortly before 8 a.m.
Despite Castillo’s claim that only eight people were killed in the ensuing shootout, graphic images taken minutes afterwards show ten dead bodies: two groups of five lying beside two different vehicles.
An anonymous eyewitness told Mexico’s Reforma newspaper that federal police officers killed at least three unarmed people who had surrendered and had their hands in the air…
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Abduction of journalist highlights dangers of reporting in Veracruz
Yet another Mexican journalist has disappeared in Veracruz, the most dangerous state for reporters in a country where the press is under constant threat from corrupt officials and organized crime.
José Moisés Sánchez Cerezo was abducted by nine armed men from his home in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo on the evening of Friday, January 2. The assailants, who were dressed in civilian clothes, also took his computer, camera and cell phone.
Sánchez is the owner of the weekly local print and online newspaper Unión de Barrial, where he wrote mostly about crime and corruption in local government. He has not been seen since he was dragged from his home and investigators are now awaiting the results of a DNA test on a body that was found in the area this week.
State prosecutors have questioned Medellín de Bravo’s entire police force over the kidnapping. Of 38 officers brought in to give statements, 13 are being held in custody, while state police officers have assumed control of the town.
Veracruz Attorney General Luis Ángel Bravo Contreras told the local press last week that his office is investigating whether Sánchez’s disappearance was linked to his activism and his work to denounce acts of corruption by the local authorities…
Click here to read this article in full at Latin Correspondent.
“I think it’s the most macho sport of all,” says Karla de los Angeles of bullfighting.
A female matador who was gored in a bullfight last weekend has vowed to return to the ring “as soon as possible”, saying she wants to inspire girls to fight sexism wherever it occurs, as it is something she still faces in her chosen career.
The Tequila Files 