Friday, February 5, 2010

Police Kidnap Youths Who Survived Massacre: Is This Normal Police Procedure?

Chihuahua State police officers in civilian clothes, wearing hoods, driving unmarked vehicles, On Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. barged into homes in Villas de Salvarcar and kidnapped four of the youths who survived the massacre last Saturday night. Although they identified themselves as police officers reports indicated they were brusque in manner, shoving the students into vehicles. Parents and neighbors at first thought the kidnappers were part of the death squad from Saturday night. It is not unheard of for kidnappers to pose as police officers. Told that their children, who ranged in age from 15-20, had been taken by police, the parents went to state police headquarters to inquire but were told they would have to wait until morning to learn whether police had taken them or not. The youths were returned to their homes at about 3:30 a.m. after five hours of questioning. By that time Tiempo, a digital newspaper in Chihuahua, was reporting the incident as a kidnapping by the killers.

Compiled from a story in Diario by Rocio Gallegos and Tiempo

Is there something wrong when the behavior of police and death squads is indistiguishable? Does this not tell us something about what the climate of fear in Cd. Juarez is doing to human relationships?

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