Four police officers from the municipal government of Cortazar, Guanajuato, affiliated with the Citizen Movement, were arrested for the forced disappearance of five people, who were allegedly handed over to a criminal group.
Of the five victims, three were rescued alive and the other two are still being sought, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported.
The police officers arrested and linked to criminal proceedings are José María, Hugo Rafael, Arturo, and Juan Miguel, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. The Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges of aggravated forced disappearance of persons, forced disappearance, and attempted forced disappearance.
“The events occurred in the early morning of September 7 of this year, when the victims were intercepted on the Salvatierra–Cortázar freeway by municipal patrols, whose crews detained them without cause until a truck with armed men arrived,” the prosecutor said.
The FGE added that the police handed the victims over to the armed men, put them in a van, and took them to a hill.
“After proving that the defendants handed the victims over to a criminal group, the judge ordered them to be prosecuted and imprisoned for the duration of the trial, setting a two-month period for the complementary investigation,” the FGE stated.
The lines of investigation are geared toward locating the two remaining victims and arresting those “responsible for this atrocious act,” it concluded.
Source: jornada
