Tuesday 5 February 2013

Mexican community policemen said kidnapped child

Masked individuals identifying themselves as members of a self-styled community police briefly kidnapped a child in the Ayutla district of the western Mexican state of Guerrero on 4 February, prompting community police chiefs to order their policemen to work unmasked. The masks were very likely intended to help community policemen avoid identification by the criminals they have vowed to fight. Residents of at least four districts in Guerrero have formed the militias to police their part of the state, in response to the authorities' inability to curb violent crime. State authorities and civil observers have already expressed concern about the legalit of such armed groups, but locals have in turn denounced the state's failure to assure security. After the kidnapping, three local community police chiefs decided their policemen would only bear masks during "operations" or patrols, La Crónica de Hoy reported on 5 February. Community forces detained dozens of suspected criminals during January at road blocks set up around relevant districts; they recently announced relatives of 54 detainees held in the locality of El Mesón could visit on Sundays. Separately in the resort of Acapulco in Guerrero masked men raped six or seven female tourists lodged in bungalows on the edge of the city on the night of 4-5 February, media reported. Six were Spanish and one Mexican, and seven Spanish men who were with them were tied up; their belongings were robbed. The group later received medical assistance and counselling, Europa Press reported on 5 February.

Missing policeman's body found in Bogotá

The body of Jairo Alberto Díaz, a 24-year-old policeman who disappeared on 27 January in Bogotá's north-eastern district of Usaquén was found on 4 February, and police were unsure if he had died by accident or been killed as he was found in a spot that had already been searched. Dozens of police agents had searched for him in Usaquén and surrounding areas and the city's police chief initially suspected he had been kidnapped by a gang. A red plastic bag found over him may have hidden him, it was speculated. Coroners were examining the body to determine possible causes of death, the broadcaster Caracol reported. His father told Caracol radio on 5 February that he was convinced "he was killed," as indicated he said by the fact that the body had not decomposed after an absence of nine days. After days of hoping to find his son alive, "what are we going to do now?" he asked in grief.