Yahoo News Entire police force of Mexican town arrested after political murder
The entire police force of a Mexican town has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a mayoral candidate.
A total of 28 officers in Ocampo have been detained after Fernando Ángeles Juárez, 64, was shot dead by unknown gunmen outside one of his homes last Thursday.
He is the third politician to be killed in the western state of Michoacán in little over a week.
More than 100 political figures have been killed across the country ahead of general elections on July 1.
Ocampo’s 27 police officers and the local public security secretary were taken into custody by federal forces on Sunday morning.
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Mr Ángeles, a successful businessman with little political experience, was representing the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
A close friend, Miguel Malagón, told El Universal newspaper: “He couldn’t stand seeing so much poverty, inequality and corruption and so he decided to run.”
Prosecutors have accused Ocampo public security secretary Oscar González García of involvement in the murder.
When Mexican federal agents went to detain him in Ocampo on Saturday, they were stopped by the town’s police officers.
They returned with more agents on Sunday morning to arrest the force and their chief. The police officers were put in handcuffs and taken for questioning in the state capital, Morelia.
The police force has been accused of having links to organised crime gangs.
Mexico will vote for a new president next month alongside hundreds of other federal, state and municipal posts.
