Mexico forces top police to prove trustworthiness or lose their jobs

By Julie Watson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:52 a.m. June 25, 2007

MEXICO CITY – Mexico has temporarily removed all of its top federal police from their jobs and is forcing them to prove they will not be corrupted in the nationwide fight against drug trafficking, the country's public safety secretary announced Monday.

While authorities often have purged police forces to try to eliminate the nagging problem of corrupt officers, this is one of the most extreme measures taken on a nationwide level to guarantee Mexico's high-ranking officers are honest.

It comes as the government seeks aid from the United States for its crackdown on drug gangs, a battle led by federal police and soldiers. Washington has long complained about Mexico's endemic corruption problem hindering anti-smuggling efforts.

Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said the review had nothing to with those discussions and was in response to Mexicans who are tired of crime and corruption. In recent years, scores of federal police have been caught working for the drug cartels, tainting what was once considered the last trustworthy group of officers.

See my comments here. -mm