5 policemen held over deadly raid

Five state police officers were arrested in connection with the deaths of four villagers during a raid on protesters who had seized the entrance of a Maya archaeological site.

The five officers led an operation Friday to remove hundreds of mostly indigenous villagers who had occupied the entrance of the Chinkultic ruins in southern Mexico for nearly a month, the Chiapas Justice Department said. The officers were being investigated on possible homicide charges.

The villagers, most of them from the Maya Tzeltal and Tzotzil cultures, had been protesting excessive entrance fees and the failure to reinvest that revenue into the area’s infrastructure and environment. They were demanding a role in the administration of the ruins.