In a brazen display of corruption and police brutality in Puerto Vallarta, two municipal police beat and detained the father of a minor who alleges the former head of Human Resources of the Municipal Police sexual assaulted her.
According to witnesses, two police officers waited outside of the father’s place of work and attacked him when he exited the building. The attack was documented in a video by a witness and published on social media.
The policemen were identified as officers Raúl (N) and José Manuel (N), who beat the minor’s father. The attack was apparently motivated by a complaint filed by the minor’s father in the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission against Raúl for harassment last month.
Over the past month, several elements of the Puerto Vallarta police department have harassed the family of the accuser, according to the family and Sandra Quiñones of the Puerto Vallarta Women’s Collective and lawyer for the minor’s family.
Quiñones stated that even the Legal Deputy Director of the Police Corporation, Rigoberto Flores Parra, had been involved in the process.
On the instructions of the interim Mayor, Jorge Quintero Alvarado, the police officers involved in the alleged attack were removed from their positions.
“In relation to the facts about an alleged aggression by an element of the Citizen Security Directorate against a person who was detained and placed at the disposal of the Public Ministry, the municipal government reports that on the instructions of the interim municipal president, Jorge Antonio Quintero Alvarado, the elements of the police involved in these events, have been removed from their positions while the corresponding investigations are carried out, to define responsibilities,” says a statement from the local government.
The mayor reiterated his government’s commitment to respect people’s human rights and not tolerate this type of act or abuse by public servants. It also indicated that it has given instructions for the facts to be investigated and clarified and that if any responsibility of the element or elements involved is demonstrated, it will proceed in accordance with the law.
(This story has been updated to refer to the minor victim as a female, an earlier version mistakenly referred to the victim as ‘him’)
