MEXICO CITY – Mexico City’s police chief, Jesus Rodriguez Almeida, has resigned amid a wave of protests over the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers.Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Macera announced the decision in a brief message to the media Friday in which he did not accept questions or provide further details.
Mexico’s constitution establishes that the Mexico City police chief must be endorsed by the head of state and his departure from office also must receive the approval of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
In recent weeks, Rodriguez Almeida has come under fire for the police response to protests in the capital in support of the family members of 43 students who went missing in late September in the southern state of Guerrero.
During the protests, self-described anarchist groups have carried out isolated acts of violence in the capital targeting commercial establishments and government buildings, including the National Palace.
Police officers from Iguala, Guerrero state, and the neighboring town of Cocula detained the 43 students on the night of Sept. 26 at the orders of Iguala’s mayor and handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos gang, which killed them and burned the bodies to eliminate all traces of the victims, Mexican authorities say, citing statements by suspects in the case.
The students’ parents have refused to accept the suspects’ account without definitive proof that human remains recovered near Iguala are those of their missing loved ones.
The remains are being examined by specialists at a laboratory in Austria.
Corrupt municipal police targeted the students from a teacher training college in the nearby village of Ayutzinapa, according to some media accounts, after they had seized several buses for use in protests against education reform
No comments:
Post a Comment