US-Funded 'Tactical Village' in Puebla State Trains Embattled Mexico Police Agence France-Presse
go to original June 10, 2015

Mexico police train in action-packed mock village (AFPBB News)

The mock village perched on a hill in central Mexico looks like a Hollywood set, with a main square surrounded by a hollow town hall, a church and a school.

At the petrol station, a heated argument between two men in a pick-up truck ends with one shooting the other dead, followed by a fiery explosion in the back of the vehicle.

Officers wielding fake assault rifles swoop in, tackle a suspect near a gazebo and handcuff another inside a supermarket. Crime scene investigators arrive to collect evidence.

But the officers are not actors on a film set. They are actual police officers in training.

Welcome to the US-funded police academy in Amozoc de Mota, Puebla state, home to the "tactical village", one of a handful in Mexico where federal, municipal and state officers are getting much-needed training.

...The academy has trained more than 16,000 agents from the country's 32 states since opening in May 2012, with $17 million spent by Puebla state and $5 million by the United States.

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