Authorities in two states in southern Mexico arrested more than 100 local police officers Monday for various abuses and offenses, adding to the long list of police corruption scandals in the country.
In the largest of the two incidents, 92 municipal police officers in the southern state of Chiapas were arrested after they tried to stop state authorities from assuming command of a police surveillance camera office.
Chiapas state prosecutors accused local police officers in the city of Comitan of using the video cameras to inform local groups — some of which are allied with drug cartels — about state and federal raids in the area.
Chiapas state police chief Óscar Aparicio Avendaño said some of the 92 municipal Comitan police officers drew their guns on state officials trying to take control of the video surveillance office, and forced them out at gunpoint.
The 92 officers were held pending charges of rioting and abuse of authority.
At issue are local groups that claim to represent farmers in the rural region, but which have often been forced or paid to act in support of drug cartels that have been warring over turf in Chiapas for months.
Having corrupt local police use the surveillance camera network to report the movements of federal troops or state police would be valuable to the farm groups and cartels, which often operate road blockades.
Meanwhile, in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, state prosecutors said they had arrested 13 state police officers implicated in three cases of forced disappearances. That is an offense in which authorities abduct someone who vanishes without a trace.
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