Mob Killings Spark Cop Vice Debate

The images are chilling: A young man, his face bloody and swollen, struggling to tell a television reporter that he is an undercover federal agent, shortly before an angry mob burns him and another officer alive on camera.

The horrific footage from Tuesday's killings have sparked a debate on growing vigilante justice in Mexico, where police are viewed as inept at best and corrupt at worst and where many say they must take matters into their own hands.

Tuesday's killings came amid rumors that children had been kidnapped from a local elementary school on Mexico City's southern outskirts. When residents saw three men taking photos and staking out the same school Tuesday evening, they took action, beating all three men. Surrounding crowds cheered and shouted obscenities as they were splattered with blood.

Reporters arrived, and the assailants pushed the victims before television cameras so they could be interviewed. Barely conscious and struggling to talk, they nodded and gave one-word answers when asked if they were federal agents.

As television helicopters hovered overhead, police began to arrive. One man was rescued, carried away unconscious by his arms and legs. The other two were bathed in gasoline and set ablaze, their charred bodies left bleeding in the street as dozens of people milled around the scene.

Federal police director Adm. Jose Luis Figueroa said the three men were plainclothes agents who had been sent to San Juan Ixtayopan to investigate drug dealing near the school.

Police were searching Wednesday for those responsible for instigating the violence, but had made no arrests.

Yet public debate focused on the police. Many questioned why it had taken riot officers hours to arrive. Others said vigilante justice was to be expected in a country where the police are infamous for seeking bribes and often implicated in the same crimes they are supposed to prevent.

There appeared to be little remorse in San Juan Ixtayopan, a picturesque community of small cement homes tucked into pine-covered hills at the foot of a snowcapped volcano.

Under the watchful eye of two uniformed police officers, hundreds of residents milled about in the town's central plaza Wednesday, discussing the events of the previous night and waiting for the arrival of police investigators and city officials. Many complained that police had ignored initial reports of the school kidnappings, and said they did not regret what had happened.

"If the police aren't going to do anything, then the town has to take matters into their own hands," said 15-year-old Maria Eva Labana, who witnessed some of the violence Tuesday night firsthand before she ran home to watch the rest on TV.

Figueroa said a full schedule had prohibited federal authorities from concentrating on the kidnapping cases.

Tuesday's violence wasn't the first. Mexicans, frustrated by soaring crime that often goes unpunished, have taken justice into their own hands on numerous occasions.

Earlier this month in another town on the capital's outskirts, police rescued a 28-year-old man local residents were threatening to beat to death for allegedly trying to steal a guitar and tape deck from a local community center.

And two years ago, an angry mob killed two of three youths who allegedly tried to rob a taxi driver in Mexico City.

Mexico City-based analyst Jose Antonio Crespo said Tuesday night's violence is a reflection that "anarchy is growing, broadening, proliferating in different areas of the country."

"When it involves a crowd like this, it is difficult to punish them," he told W Radio. "This enables other people in the future to take justice into their own hands as well."

Television anchor Carlos Loret de Mola openly chided Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard for failing to send officers in time to save all three men Tuesday.

"Reporters arrived before the police," Loret de Mola said.

Ebrard said local police were on the scene immediately but were not able to control the huge crowd. He said hundreds of additional officers were required to control the situation, and it took more than an hour to get them mobilized and sent to the scene.

Loret de Mola then asked Ebrard if he thought that the killings "sent a message that the people don't trust officials, don't trust any of you."

Ebrard admitted the people's reaction was worrisome, but said: "This has no justification."

By Will Weissert