Police sent packing

last updated 8 January 2015

Cuernavaca, Mexico

Gov. Sergio Estrada fired all 552 of his central Mexican state’s police officers this week, in a campaign to root out corruption. The purge came days after the Morelos state police chief and his top deputy were charged with protecting drug traffickers. Estrada said he would replace the cashiered officers with federal forces and new police-academy graduates. The day the firings were announced, Mexico City’s El Universal reported that two witnesses had linked the governor himself to drug lords. Estrada denied the allegation and challenged the newspaper to come up with proof. “I am also capable of making a lot of things up,” he said.