Mob kills 3 men in Mexico over forbidden love

Feb 14, 2012, 19:07 GMT

Mexico City - Three young men were burned alive in a rural area close to Mexico City after one of them got involved in a relationship with a girl despite being married to another woman, the Mexican daily Reforma reported Tuesday.

The three men, two of them aged 16 and the other one 26, were accused of being kidnappers and were killed late Friday in San Mateo Huitzilzingo, in the municipality of Chalco. A mob of around 300 people, which gathered as locals heeded a call made by sounding the church bells, then set them ablaze.

Reforma reported that the 26-year-old, a bricklayer, was in the village to visit his lover. The girl's mother opposed the relationship because he was married, and a quarrel followed. The girl reportedly threatened to run away from home, and her mother started to shout that the men wanted to kidnap her daughter.

Locals stopped the three friends and accused them of being kidnappers. Although police initially took them into custody to preserve their safety, the mob took them from the police facility and set them on fire.

Two of them died instantly, while the other died later in hospital of his wounds. A total of 23 people were arrested for allegedly taking part in the lynching.

The authorities of the state of Mexico adjoining the capital said none of the three men was a kidnapper or had any form of a criminal record. They did not rule out that the attack on them may have been premeditated, since Molotov cocktails which have to have been made in advance were used.

There have been several similar lynchings across Mexico in recent years. In one of the highest-profile such cases, in 2004, three undercover federal police officers were accused of being kidnappers, beaten up for two hours and then burned. Only one of them survived.