By Peter Gellert
MEXICO CITY — A major human-rights scandal involving the city's police department continues to pick up steam following the arrest on November 18 of three top military commanders of elite police units.
The police force has been under increasing scrutiny and criticism since September 8, when, during a controversial yet routine police raid on the high-crime neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, six youth suspects were kidnapped by police. Their bodies were later found on the outskirts of the city, murdered execution style.
Authorities' initial response was to deny any involvement, attributing the killings to inter-gang disputes. Later, when the story unravelled and police were revealed to be the killers, the murders were attributed to over-zealous lower-level policemen who supposedly acted without the knowledge or consent of their superiors or top city police officials.
However, virtually no one in Mexico City believed the police account. In addition, the incoming mayoral administration of Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas, from the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution, from the beginning charged top police officials, including city police chief General Tomas Salgado, with responsibility. Cárdenas and his team take office on December 5.
During the past six months, the city police have been increasingly militarised, with army officials taking charge and soldiers assuming patrolmen's duties.
This, and arbitrary raids on poor neighbourhoods or police sweeps against young people — in which victims are detained without arrest warrants or other legal formalities and released only after a hefty bribe is paid — have been a constant source of discontent. The links between the police and organised crime and corruption have only exacerbated the problem.
As pressure mounted in recent weeks, and at the urging of the semi-official Mexico City human rights commission, President Ernesto Zedillo ordered an investigation.
On November 18, the military justice prosecutor's office arrested three top military commanders assigned to head the specialised Mexico City police units and charged them with responsibility for the Buenos Aires events and with covering up evidence. The public's suspicion that top police officials gave the order to carry out the killings was thus officially confirmed.
Significantly, this is the first time that a branch of the military has accepted recommendations from an official human rights commission.
The response of the elite police units to the arrests and attempts to detain an additional 14 other military commanders was a full-scale mutiny. On November 19, some 250 members of the Zorros specialised police group seized control of the barracks and held out for 13 hours.
In an interesting commentary on the state of human rights in Mexico, the rebel cops' only demand was for those arrested to be processed in accordance with the law, with the right to have a defence lawyer present. The usual practice is for suspects to have concessions tortured out of them.
Incredibly, police chief General Salgado continues to insist he knew nothing of what had transpired in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood raid and killings. Not surprisingly, few have spoken up in the general's defence.
Pressure, however, continues to mount particularly against the city prosecutor's office for alleged failure to uncover the role of top police officers in ordering the murder of criminal suspects.
The new arrests and the abortive police mutiny indicate the scandal is far from over. Indeed, the public consensus is that the situation is out of control. Other heads may soon roll in the Mexico City police department and government.