Been a crime victim? Call us, says Mexican army general
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The Mexican Army’s top officer in northwest Mexico is inviting citizens to contact the army directly if they’re victims of a crime. His offer has been construed here in Mexico as a slap in the face to the nation’s police force, which is plagued by problems of corruption. As a result of his statement, it’s expected that the general will be relieved of his duties in the coming days. According to an Associated Press report in the Miami Herald:
Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito ... has publicized a phone number for pleas for help and on Sunday gave the news media his latest 5,700-word bombshell letter complaining of police corruption. Such public provocations are extremely out of character for military leaders in Mexico, and the general may have gone so far that he might be forced out: A state official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Mexican newspaper reports that the general will be relieved of his command as early as Friday. ... ‘What he’s doing is completely unprecedented,’ said Roderic Camp, an expert on the Mexican military at Claremont McKenna College. ‘Instructing citizens to call the army is really unique.’
Problems of corruption and links to organized crime networks have long plagued the Mexican police force, as the last few months have underscored. As Mexico stands to receive $400 million in funding from the United States under the terms of the so-called Merida Initiative, new evidence recently has come to light showing Mexican police allegedly taking part in torture-instruction classes.
Just this week, two policemen were implicated in the kidnapping of a 14-year-old boy, whose bullet-riddled body turned up in the trunk of a car, even though his parents reportedly had paid millions in ransom to his kidnappers.
Read more about Gen. Aponte’s statement here.
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-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City