10/31/14 (written by cissel) — The Mexican Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación, or SEGOB) has spoken out regarding a video that shows four federal agents harassing journalists in Cocula, Guerrero. The video, which surfaced on October 27, shows the heavily armed federal agents, dressed in plain clothes and traveling in a gray sedan without plates, disembarking from their vehicle and approaching a car in which four journalists, who were apparently on their way to investigate the discovery of a supposed mass grave, were traveling on the road outside of Cocula. The video shows the agents approaching the vehicle and pointing their weapons at the reporters, shouting at them to get out of the vehicle, with one agent banging the butt of his rifle on the drivers side window hard enough for it to partially break. As the agents headed back to their vehicle, one of them whistled and signaled and two marked Federal Police (Policía Federal, PF) trucks appear within seconds before the video goes black.
As El Universal reports, SEGOB stated that the armed agents were members of the Federal Police Division of Intelligence and Investigation (Divisiones de Inteligencia e Investigación de la Policía Federal), who were traveling in plain clothes and in a vehicle without plates as they were involved in an undercover operation that had been carried out or was being carried out in the village of Apetlanca, Cuetzala del Progreso, Guerrero. The police allegedly harassed the journalists because they were following the agents in an unidentified vehicle, and the agents wanted to ensure the success and secrecy of the operation. The operation was carried out to detain a person who was allegedly partially responsible for the disappearance of 43 students from nearby Iguala on September 26.
Related operations on October 27 resulted in the arrest of three other people also allegedly responsible for the disappearance of the students. All four of the suspects detained on October 27 are alleged members of the criminal group Guerreros Unidos, which has been accused of orchestrating the disappearance of the 43 students, and have been transferred to Mexico City under the authority of the Attorney General of the Republic (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR). The state of Guerrero and especially the area around Cocula and Iguala has been a hotspot of unrest ever since the disappearance of the students, and a new apparent mass grave (the intended destination of the journalists in the video) was recently discovered in Cocula. Whether or not the supposed mass grave, which as of now is described simply as a pit, is tied to the Iguala dissapearances has yet to be determined.
Sources:
Agencias. “Segob aclara agresión contra periodistas en Cocula.” Univisión. October 28, 2014.
