Mexico’s federal police chief, Enrique Galindo, was sacked following allegations that police killed at least 22 suspected members of a drugs cartel.
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The move was aimed at facilitating “a quick and transparent investigation”, he added without providing further details.
Police allegedly killed 22 men on a ranch in the western state of Michoacan past year, then allegedly moved the bodies and planted guns on the dead cartel members. In all, 42 civilians and one federal police officer were killed.
In the bloody encounter past year, federal police ambushed suspected members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) holed up at a ranch near the small town of Tanhuato in the violent western state of Michoacan, killing 42.
Officers said they had returned fire in self-defence but the high death toll aroused suspicions.
The national security commissioner, Renato Sales, denied the accusations, saying the gun battle between security forces and heavily armed criminals broke out after they refused to surrender their weapons.
According to the commission’s report, after the federal police officer was shot, police called for backup.
Galindo will be replaced by Manelich Castilla Craviotto, who was previously in charge of the federal police’s gendarmes force.
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“I think his position was unsustainable after the CNDH report on Tanhuato”, Mexico City-based security analyst Alejandro Hope said of Galindo. It left eight dead, seven from gunshot wounds.
