17 held in attack, rapes on church camp in Mexico

Police arrested 17 men Wednesday on suspicion of attacking youths and raping five women and girls who were on a church camping trip outside Mexico City, a brutal assault that shocked much of the country.           

The attorney general for the State of Mexico, Alfredo Castillo, said 11 of the gang members were identified by some of the victims. In interrogation videos played for reporters, three of the suspects confessed that they sexually abused the women and girls because fellow attackers told them to.              

Two of the suspects were local police officers and another had served in the military, Castillo said, speaking two days after authorities announced the arrest of a man who was described as not directly involved in the assault on the camp-out but who allegedly provided information to the assailants.             

President Felipe Calderon met with parents and lawyers of the victims Wednesday to discuss the crime, which highlighted the increasing dangers of outdoors activities around the capital.           

Sponsored by a church group, 90 youths were camping Friday at an eco-park on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City when a group of armed men stormed into the hilly area. The attackers went on an hours-long rampage of beatings, robberies and rapes at the site close to the lower flanks of the Popocatepetl volcano.              

The episode and a similar mass robbery and rape attack in February at a spot nearby have reduced city residents' trust in the serenity of the wooded hills around the city and interrupted a decades-old tradition of outdoors activities in the pine and fir forests.               

Prosecutors have said the latest attack was not related to organized crime or drug gangs. Common criminals, robbers and rapists have been targeting hikers and campers on the city's outskirts.           

Mexico's equivalent of the Boy Scouts said Tuesday that it is recommending scouts not go on hikes in small groups and avoid about 11 wooded areas on the outskirts of Mexico City. No scouts were involved in the attack.            

The Scouts Association of Mexico said future hikes should ask for police protection if necessary. The group's statement said it coordinated a recent hike with local police departments.    

AP