Local policeman
says to his partner: 'Between
the narco-
traffickers
and government, everybody wants our heads'
Mexico Federal
Police Used as 'Private Assassins' to Kill CIA Agents (La Jornada,
Mexico)
"The plain
truth is that the Federal Police have been infiltrated by crime to the point
that 14 if its officers were used as hired assassins to kill, in an undercover
operation - as they did so out of uniform and traveling in private vehicles -
two foreign spies, whose presence and operations on national territory
constitute are, by the way, also matters of dubious legality."
The back of a U.S. Embassy SUV that was carrying two CIA agents and one U.S. Marine to a nearby naval base, and that was fired upon by Mexican Federal Police, both uniformed and plainclothes. No one was killed. Mexicans fear that if there were fatalities, additional U.S. intervention in their country would likely have been the result.
Pointing out the results of an expert investigation, Assistant
Attorney General Victoria Pacheco Jimenez said yesterday that 14 Federal Police
officers, blamed so far for the attack on two U.S. CIA agents and one Mexican Marine
traveling in an armored van along a stretch of road in Huitzilac-TresMarías in August, were directly responsible for the
deaths. Almost half of the 152 bullets fired on the vehicle impacted the windows
of the driver and front passenger - the most vulnerable points of the van - ensuring
that there was no return fire from the Mexican Martine driving the vehicle. She
also noted that the Attorney General's Office has obtained arrest warrants for
five Federal Police commanders accused of covering up the identities of the alleged
killers, but only one can be acted on, as the other four officers have received
a protection against the arrest.
This confirmed that the attack was an intentional act of attempted
homicide in which about two dozen public servants were involved - with the
consent of the Calderon government. This debunks the image promoted by that same
federal government, to wit: that the Federal Police is the only reliable police
force in the country, and that this is a great legacy of the current
president's battle against organized crime. The plain truth is that the Federal
Police have been infiltrated by crime to the point that 14 if its officers were
used as hired assassins to kill, in an undercover operation - as they did so out
of uniform and traveling in private vehicles - two foreign spies, whose
presence and operations on national territory constitute are, by the way,
also matters of dubious legality.
Although the five Federal Police officers imputed in the
episode only face charges of concealment, it is highly unlikely that the
fourteen alleged perpetrators of the attempted murder had undertaken the
operation by choice, and it appears that the masterminds have yet to be identified.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
One wonders, in light of these still incomplete revelations,
how many times Federal Police have been sent to violence-hit regions in operations
that have resulted in thousands of complaints by civilians, and in which attacks
by Federal Police have translated into crime and murder for hire by the highest
bidder. One must ask what side the law has been on in the many cased in which Federal
Police have subdued, chased and imprisoned state and local policemen.
Apart from that, the attack in Tres
Marias reveals a collision between two of the essential elements of Calderon’s
security strategy: on the one hand, the Federal Police itself, and on the other,
the increasingly operational presence of U.S. police, spies and military
officials in the country.
In sum, in the last few weeks of this troubled and bloody
six-year period, displayed, in all its rawness, is the catastrophe of a
government guideline that was regarded, from the very moment of its implementation,
as improvisational, propagandistic, potentially destabilizing and
counterproductive. The outgoing administration had six years to hear the criticism
and rectify the problem, but decided not to do so.
