Mexico mourns police commanders killed in 2 states

MEXICO CITY – A police commander in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato was killed Monday by unidentified attackers, local officials said.

Sergio Morales Casas was a more than 25-year veteran of the Celaya police force, the city said in a statement that condemned the slaying. It said the state prosecutor’s office was investigating.

Photographs of the scene showed a uniformed man slumped over in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck in the middle of the street.

His death followed the weekend killing of another police commander in the Mexican resort of Cancun. Local officials there disputed accusations by a drug cartel that authorities favoured a rival gang.

The decapitated body of José Antonio Archi Yama was found on a dirt road in Cancun. The officer, who had been kidnapped days earlier, had served in the nearby resort Playa del Carmen.

An unverified video of Archi Yama posted on social media purportedly shows him confessing that he detained members of the Jalisco cartel to allow another gang to take over.

The governor of Quintana Roo state, Carlos Joaquin, wrote late Sunday that “we will continue combatting crime with full force.” But he acknowledged that authorities in the past had “formed alliances” with criminals.