- The incident occurred after four men attempted to rob an elderly taxi driver, leading to his death.
- The police officer was rescued but later died from severe injuries.
- Lynching incidents are common in Mexico due to a lack of police accountability.
An enraged mob in the Mexican city of Zacatelco beat a policeman to death following the murder of a taxi driver. The officer intervened when locals attacked two men suspected of killing the taxi driver, resulting in several other policemen being injured by the angry neighbors.
Locals in Zacatelco have voiced complaints about unpunished crimes. According to the local daily El Sol de Tlaxcala, four men attempted to rob an elderly taxi driver of his car, resulting in his death when he resisted. Observers from the community pursued and apprehended two of the four suspects, subjecting them to a beating in the local square.
State police intervened and rescued the suspects, but the group subsequently turned on the officers, seizing two of them and attacking them.
Colleagues rescued one officer, who is currently undergoing treatment for severe injuries. The local paper reported that, however, the second officer, a state police officer, was held for several hours.
He was eventually freed after police reinforcements arrived but succumbed to his injuries in the hospital later on.
Parts of Mexico frequently experience lynching incidents due to the lack of police accountability towards criminals.
According to figures released by NGO Causa en Común (Common Cause), Tlaxcala, the state where Zacatelco is situated, recorded 23 lynching attempts between January and September of 2023, marking the highest figure in Mexico.
In three cases, the lynchings in Tlaxcala resulted in fatalities.
The phenomenon of lynching extends beyond Tlaxcala. Just last month, residents in Guerrero state beat a woman to death after suspecting her of murdering an eight-year-old girl.
Polls indicate that violent crime and insufficient security rank among the primary concerns for Mexicans, with frustration over the low rate of successful prosecutions contributing to vigilante violence.
[embedpost slug=”http://107.21.149.147/international/2024/04/eight-chinese-migrants-found-dead-on-mexican-beach/”]
