Mexico Arrests 12 Police Officers in Border Massacre Probe

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Feb 03 2021, 9:30 PMFeb 03 2021, 10:48 PMFebruary 03 2021, 9:30 PMFebruary 03 2021, 10:48 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Mexican authorities arrested a dozen police officers in connection with the murder of 19 people in Tamaulipas state, according to local Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica.

The officers were charged with homicide, abuse of authority and giving false statements, Barrios said late on Tuesday. Interior Minister Olga Sanchez, who is standing in at daily press briefings for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador while he battles Covid-19, said the federal government is aiding the local investigation.

“We’ve had problems with many immigration officials, precisely with this type of violation of rights, and we have to recognize them to move forward,” Sanchez said in a Wednesday morning press briefing. “These violations of the human rights of migrants are absolutely unacceptable.”

The case is the latest mass homicide to capture Mexico’s national attention amid a surge in violence. For the administration of Lopez Obrador, the murders and alleged cover-up are a test of his campaign pledge to root out corruption. Early in his administration, the president established a commission to investigate the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher’s College, and has pledged that there would be no more mass killings at the hands of public forces.

So far, officials have determined that at least two of the 19 burned bodies, which were found about an hour and a half away from McAllen, Texas, were those of migrants from Guatemala. Prosecutors in Tamaulipas will give further details at a press conference later on Wednesday.