Residents jail their mayor

last updated 8 January 2015

San Juan Chamula, Mexico

Hundreds of fed-up residents in a poor Mexican town locked their mayor in jail this week, saying he had stolen public funds. The crowd also “arrested” the town treasurer and two council members. Juan Lopez, a spokesman for the crowd, said Mayor Juan Gomez of San Juan Chamula and the other officials had falsified documents and created phantom public works projects, such as roads and playing fields. Lopez said they collected money for the projects but never built them. Gomez insisted he and his colleagues had done nothing wrong, and appealed to state authorities to spring them from jail.