Fox Names New Head of Mexico’s Federal Police
President Vicente Fox on Monday picked a new head of the Federal Preventive Police after dismissing the force’s previous director for bungling his response to a mob attack that killed two federal agents.
Tomas Valencia, who had served as the Federal Preventive Police’s chief of staff, replaces Adm. Jose Luis Figueroa, who was fired Dec. 6 and is being investigated for dereliction of duty in the Nov. 23 slayings, in which a mob seized, beat and burned to death two of the force’s plainclothes officers.
Figueroa, who was relieved of duty after less than two months on the job, was dismissed by the president along with Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard in a move that has touched off another in a string of political fights between Fox and the capital’s mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a potential candidate in next year’s presidential race.
The controversy subsided somewhat after Lopez Obrador’s choice to replace Ebrard was approved by Fox’s office last month.
It took authorities hours to respond to the uprising on Mexico City’s southeastern outskirts, in which a third officer survived a severe beating from the mob.
Ebrard had argued that clogged, narrow streets and insufficient forces kept city police from responding.
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