Mexico government apologises for deaths of youths taken by police

Relatives of five youths killed in 2016 after police kidnapped them and then turned them over to members of a drug gang, react during a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican government officials apologised on Monday to families of five youths killed after police kidnapped them and turned them over to a brutal drug gang, a rare instance of officials admitting the state's culpability in such crimes.

Relatives said the apology is the first official recognition the four boys and a girl were innocent victims and not criminals as officials initially asserted when they went missing in 2016 in the Gulf state of Veracruz, one of Mexico's most violent.