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Mexican Police Accused Of Sexual Abuse

Guillermo Ibarra, an official with the Mexican National Human Rights Commission, said Tuesday that seven women reported being raped and 16 others, including three foreigners, said they were sexually abused by Mexico police who detained them after clashes last week in San Salvador Atenco.

The women are among more than 200 people taken into custody last week in San Salvador Atenco, where members of a radical group kidnapped and beat six policemen, after they tried to prevent flower vendors from setting up stands in a nearby city.

Mexico State Police Chief Wilfrido Robledo denied the allegations, telling they were part of a strategy by detainees? lawyers to disrepute police. Ibarra said both the commission and state police had appointed doctors to examine the women, but that more than half of the alleged victims so far have refused.