2nd Police Official Quits, Marring New Mexico City Regime
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MEXICO CITY — A second member of the fledgling Mexico City government police team resigned late Thursday in another major embarrassment for the capital’s new opposition mayor.
Francisco Castellanos de la Garza stepped down as head of the auto thefts department when it was revealed that he had been fired as the director of a prison in the late 1980s after he was implicated in sexual abuse cases and the sale of drugs.
City Atty. Gen. Samuel del Villar told reporters that Castellanos de la Garza had subsequently been exonerated but had still decided to resign his post in the city’s new leftist government.
Castellanos de la Garza’s resignation was the second to embarrass Mexico City’s new mayor, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who was inaugurated little more than a week ago. Cardenas is the founder of the Democratic Revolution Party.
On Wednesday, the head of Mexico City’s investigative police resigned after allegations that he had links to drug traffickers and organized crime.
Cardenas took office Dec. 5 as the first elected mayor of the city since the 1920s, pledging to crack down on a growing crime wave and run an honest government.
But the scandals have marred the start of his term, widely seen as a dry run for the 2000 presidential elections.
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