San Cristóbal De Las Casas,Chiapas. A total of 98 alleged officers of the police of Tonalá, a municipality on the coast of Chiapas, were arrested for the crime of usurping public authority and resulting offenses, commited to the detriment of society, informed the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE, for its acronym in Spanish.)
It explained that those arrested could not prove that they were police officers, with any credential or document that identified them as such.
In a press release, it pointed out that they were apprehended in an institutional operation to verify weapons and the facilities of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat of Tonalá, carried out on Friday.
He added that three pseudo-officers were arrested and found to have firearms; two of them are subject to investigation due to the fact that, in the review of their personal telephone equipment, it was noticed that they had communications to alert criminal groups about the presence of checkpoints.
The prosecutor’s office emphasized that it opened the corresponding investigations and activated the necessary protocols, where a multidisciplinary group is working to obtain evidence to prove the participation of the accused in the acts attributed to them, in order to determine their legal situation.
Meanwhile, sources from the FGE said that the process against the uniformed men will be carried out in Tonalá, in charge of the Istmo-Costa district attorney’s office. They commented that the legal term expires today at 1:00 p.m., so it will be known at that time how many will be tried and how many will be free of charges. They specified that the police officers of Tonalá are under investigation; meanwhile, the surveillance of that place is in charge of elements of the state Secretariat of People’s Security (SSP).
The FGE, headed by Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, explained that members of this institution, of the National Defense and SSP Secretariats are participating in the operations, among them members of the Pakal Immediate Reaction Force.
To date, 359 municipal and transit police officers have been apprehended in different operations -most with the participation of federal and state security forces- in Comitán (93), Chiapa de Corzo (89), Villaflores (39), Villa Corzo (25), Tuxtla Gutiérrez (9), Bochil (4) and San Cristóbal de Las Casas (2). Of these 359, according to sources, 88 have been sentenced and the rest have been released.
The operations to detain and investigate police officers in several districts of Chiapas began in January, as part of the security strategy of the new state government that took office on December 8.
During the roll call, they could not prove their position.
Regarding Tonalá, the sources specified that when the Defense and the commissioner of the SSP made a roll call and weapons check, the officers were not carrying any document accrediting them as local public security personnel, and for that reason they were placed in the custody of the FGE (Federal Prosecutor’s Office).
Subsequently, the municipal trustee and the mayor, Manuel Narcia Coutiño, appeared, who verified with the payroll the registration of the uniformed officers, and the collective permit for their weapons.
“From there the request to control and confidence is deriverd, so that they can inform us if they are endorsed by the corresponding authority. With the data we have just received, we are already determining who has the position and who does not,” added the informant.
In addition, the state prosecutor’s office announced that the Investigation Police will now be called Investigation and Ministerial Intelligence Agency, following the approval of decree 205 by the local Congress.
With this change of name, he added, the institution aims to consolidate its strategy for crime investigation in the fight against crime in the state, implemented by Governor Eduardo Ramírez, in order to eradicate violence and reduce crime rates.
Original text by Elio Henríquez published in La Jornada on February, 16th 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.