| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2009 
Mexico Probe Over Kidnap Deaths
 Stephen Gibbs - BBC News
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August 21, 2009
Mexico City - The anti-kidnapping chief of Mexico City has been suspended from duty following a disastrous rescue attempt that left four dead.
Police shot two of their own men and the man they were attempting to arrest shot his hostage. Juan Maya Aviles will remain off duty pending a probe.
Mexico City has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world.
The authorities are in the midst of a campaign to root out corruption and increase professionalism in the police.
FBI-trained
Last month police were alerted that a middle-aged woman from Mexico City had been kidnapped and was being held in a house in the capital.
Such information is hardly uncommon. Dozens of people are believed to be kidnapped across Mexico every day.
But what happened in the hours following the call appears to be a lesson in what not to do in such circumstances.
As the police approached the house, the kidnappers began shooting at them with AK47 automatic rifles.
The police returned fire and in the process shot two of their own men in the back. Both of those killed were members of the city's FBI-trained rapid response team. One was the group's chief.
Inside the house the hostage was murdered by her kidnapper, who then killed himself.
To make matters worse, it has also emerged that the woman's driver had earlier tipped police off about a probable kidnap attempt, raising suspicions of possible complicity on the part of the police.
Mexico City's attorney general has suspended the capital's anti-kidnap chief pending a thorough enquiry.
The Mexican media are portraying the incident as evidence of the urgent need in this crime-ridden capital for a better trained police force. |
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