MEXICO CITY, Aug. 30 (UPI) — Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has fired federal police chief Enrique Galindo, following a report police killed at least 22 suspected members of a drug cartel.
Nieto fired Galindo to clear the way for a transparent investigation after the country’s National Human Rights Commission accused police of evidence tampering.
Police allegedly killed 22 men on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan last year, then allegedly moved the bodies and planted guns on the dead cartel members.
“The investigation confirmed facts that show grave human rights violations attributable to public servants of the federal police,” said commission President Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez at a press conference earlier this month.
Investigators found 13 of the victims had been shot in the back, as well as four of the deaths likely coming from excessive force, and two were probably tortured. The report also said 40 civilian were shot to death.
