Police Misconduct Mexico

Authorities on both sides of the Mexican border say the fatal weekend car crash after which two men from Orange County were held despite their injuries illustrates a harsh truth that too few tourists understand: Mexico is a foreign country with laws much different from those Americans take for granted.

Authorities on both sides of the Mexican border say the fatal weekend car crash after which two men from Orange County were held despite their injuries illustrates a harsh truth that too few tourists understand: Mexico is a foreign country with laws much different from those Americans take for granted.

The father of a man involved in a fatal car crash in Baja California over the weekend criticized Mexican authorities Monday for holding two injured passengers on high bail amounts before releasing them. "There is no way to protect yourself except not to be there," said Kevin Lewand, a Tustin lawyer whose son was seriously injured in the crash early Saturday morning near Rosarito Beach. The single-car rollover crash killed the driver and injured another passenger.

Family members of three friends involved in a fatal car crash in Baja California over the weekend criticized Mexican authorities Monday for detaining those injured and demanding high bail amounts for their release. The crash again triggered warnings about the dangers that Americans face when they cross the border, an issue that last flared in August when the family of an injured San Diego County man had to pay $7,000 before he could be transferred to a U.S. hospital, where he died.

Prosecutors have charged nine policemen with luring three teenage girls into a squad car, holding them as prisoners at a police facility for several days and raping the two younger girls. The girls were going to a park in downtown Mexico City last Sunday when they asked policemen in a neighborhood on the city's southern edge for directions, local media reported.

As Terry Mamalis and David Forsberg lay in the dark on the floor of the Mexican police van--bound, gagged, blindfolded, beaten, robbed, tortured and soaked with gasoline--the two New York tourists were certain they were about to die. All they had done wrong, they say, was ask two men in uniform for directions. It happened on Feb.

The families of two Los Angeles County men kidnapped and then killed in Tijuana after their relatives were unable to raise $1 million in ransom traveled to the Mexican city Friday to identify the bodies and arrange funeral services. Seven men, including three Tijuana police officers, have been arrested in the case. An eighth suspect, believed to be in Southern California, remains at large.

International investigators announced Wednesday that they recorded numerous accounts of police torture, illegal detention and lawlessness in a recent tour of the troubled state of Guerrero, where thousands of army troops have been deployed in a monthlong search for a new, self-styled rebel army.

An Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Saturday acknowledged that six off-duty U. S. Border Patrol officers had been briefly detained Friday in the Mexican border city of Mexicali after a disagreement with a citizen there. Notimex, the Mexican government news agency, reported the six unidentified officers were arrested shortly before dawn Friday after they allegedly beat up a lawyer who had complained about their drunken and disorderly conduct.

A Mexican police officer has been sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison in the strangling death of a North Hollywood man in a Rosarito jail, a rare victory for human rights activists who contend that Mexican police mistreat foreign tourists with impunity. It also was a ringing triumph for the dead man's brother, who mounted a home-grown protest that dragged both a U.S. congressman and the president of Mexico into the case on his behalf. "This decision . . .

The father of a man involved in a fatal car crash in Baja California over the weekend criticized Mexican authorities Monday for holding two injured passengers on high bail amounts before releasing them. "There is no way to protect yourself except not to be there," said Kevin Lewand, a Tustin lawyer whose son was seriously injured in the crash early Saturday morning near Rosarito Beach. The single-car rollover crash killed the driver and injured another passenger.

Seven more Mexico City police officers have been arrested in the suspected gang rape of three teenage girls, bringing to 15 the number of officers held in the case, a newspaper reported. Reforma said all 15 officers had pleaded innocent to the charges. Nine members of the Mexico City mounted police force were arrested Thursday for the alleged rape of teens ages 13, 15 and 18, authorities reported. One of them was released over the weekend for lack of evidence.

Prosecutors have charged nine policemen with luring three teenage girls into a squad car, holding them as prisoners at a police facility for several days and raping the two younger girls. The girls were going to a park in downtown Mexico City last Sunday when they asked policemen in a neighborhood on the city's southern edge for directions, local media reported.

An army general who was the third-ranking officer in the Mexico City police force was fired and arrested for his suspected role in the slaying of six youths, officials said Saturday. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello became the fourth high-ranking police official with an army background to fall in the widening scandal, which led to pitched battles between army and police forces Wednesday and Thursday.

The families of two Los Angeles County men kidnapped and then killed in Tijuana after their relatives were unable to raise $1 million in ransom traveled to the Mexican city Friday to identify the bodies and arrange funeral services. Seven men, including three Tijuana police officers, have been arrested in the case. An eighth suspect, believed to be in Southern California, remains at large.

International investigators announced Wednesday that they recorded numerous accounts of police torture, illegal detention and lawlessness in a recent tour of the troubled state of Guerrero, where thousands of army troops have been deployed in a monthlong search for a new, self-styled rebel army.

Seven more Mexico City police officers have been arrested in the suspected gang rape of three teenage girls, bringing to 15 the number of officers held in the case, a newspaper reported. Reforma said all 15 officers had pleaded innocent to the charges. Nine members of the Mexico City mounted police force were arrested Thursday for the alleged rape of teens ages 13, 15 and 18, authorities reported. One of them was released over the weekend for lack of evidence.

President Ernesto Zedillo fired Mexico City's chief law-enforcement officer Tuesday after concluding that the city's riot squads used excessive force last week, injuring at least 40 teachers marching for better pay. "Violence must not be met with violence," declared presidential spokesman Carlos Almada in announcing Zedillo's extraordinary decision to fire David Garay Maldonado, the capital's controversial police chief.

As Terry Mamalis and David Forsberg lay in the dark on the floor of the Mexican police van--bound, gagged, blindfolded, beaten, robbed, tortured and soaked with gasoline--the two New York tourists were certain they were about to die. All they had done wrong, they say, was ask two men in uniform for directions. It happened on Feb.

President Ernesto Zedillo fired Mexico City's chief law-enforcement officer Tuesday after concluding that the city's riot squads used excessive force last week, injuring at least 40 teachers marching for better pay. "Violence must not be met with violence," declared presidential spokesman Carlos Almada in announcing Zedillo's extraordinary decision to fire David Garay Maldonado, the capital's controversial police chief.