Mexico: Arrest warrants for 5 agents in torture video case

MEXICO CITY – Authorities issued arrest warrants for five security agents in connection with the torture of a young woman that was caught on video, Mexican federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The Attorney General’s Office said the warrants target three Federal Police officers, two of whom were taken into custody the same day, and two soldiers who were to be served at a military prison where they were already being held. The third police officer had not yet been detained.

The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that the five are suspected of torture committed against the woman after she was detained Feb. 4, 2015, in Ajuchitlan del Progreso, in the troubled southern state of Guerrero.

The warrants came from a civil court judge in the city of Iguala.

The video circulated on social and traditional media in recent days and prompted both widespread condemnation and apologies from Mexico’s defence minister and national security commissioner.

The video shows a female soldier interrogating the woman, pulling her hair and putting the muzzle of a rifle against her head. Later, a female police officer suffocates the woman by putting a plastic bag over her head until she nearly passes out.