A former mayor and four former municipal police officers were found guilty yesterday of the murder of 10 young men in Cuitzeo, Michoacán, in July 2016.

Ex-mayor Juan Carlos Arreygue Núñez of Álvaro Obregón and the four officers were charged after the bodies of 10 young men were found half burned in a pickup truck on a property Arreygue owned.

Investigators determined that municipal police had detained the men on orders of the mayor, who had personal differences with one of them.

The former mayor himself was found directly responsible for the deaths of three of the victims at the conclusion of the eight-month trial.

Arreygue, who had run for election under the banner of the Labor Party, had been suspected of ties with the Caballeros Templarios criminal gang before becoming mayor.

The party issued a statement saying it would appeal the ruling.

A member of the executive committee said they would take the case before another judge “with more understanding . . . one that will rule that we are right and will order [Arreygue’s] release.”

Francisco Salguero said there were many doubts surrounding the case and “when there’s doubt there should be absolution . . . ”

The ex-mayor’s wife was in the news in May when as a candidate for her husband’s old job she was kidnapped from her campaign headquarters. María de Lourdes Torres Díaz was rescued the following day.

She ran for mayor in the coalition headed by president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but lost the election to the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate.

Source: SDP Noticias (sp), Notivideo (sp)