Honduras Fires Over Two Dozen Police Commanders

More than two dozen police commanders in Honduras have been fired as part of an effort to clean up a force that has long been infiltrated by organized crime.

The civilian commission in charge of reforming the police force announced the firings on Friday, 10 days after five top police generals, including two former police chiefs, were dismissed.

The shake-up followed news coverage of police files showing that top police officials ordered the killings of a Honduran antidrug czar, Julián Arístides González Irías, in 2009 and his top adviser two years later.

According to the documents, the police in those killings acted under the orders of a drug cartel leader, Winter Blanco. At the center of both plots, according to the files, was a police chief, Ricardo Ramírez del Cid, who was among those fired in April.

Accusations of extrajudicial killings and suspicions of drug ties have dogged the national police for decades, but repeated efforts to remake the institution have faltered. This time has been different.

Read More- New York Times

Image courtesy of AP