Mexican mob's violence against undercover agents causes uproar

Published: 2004-11-30

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- On Nov. 23, somebody in the small town of San Juan Ixtayopan noticed three undercover federal agents parked in front of the town's elementary school, reportedly taking pictures of children leaving the building. What happened next is at the center of an ongoing police investigation of a criminal case that has shocked Mexico more than any other in recent years. Somehow, local residents came to believe the agents were planning to kidnap children from the school, and a mob quickly formed and grew to some 2,000 people. The crowd flipped over the car and fished out the agents, and when local media arrived shortly afterward, the officers already were bloodied and half-conscious from a beating. Federal police say the agents were investigating small-time drug dealers in the area, though local authorities have said they are asking whether the agents were actually tracking down members of an obscure guerrilla movement. Whatever their mission, by the time enough police arrived in the small town to control the mob, somebody in the crowd had dowsed two of the men with gasoline, and someone else had lit a match. The third officer was hospitalized after police managed to wrest him from the crowd.

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