By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 22, 2008

MEXICO CITY, June 21 -- Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard acknowledged Saturday that "grave errors" were committed in a drug raid that sparked a stampede at a dance club late Friday, leaving 12 people dead.

Nine clubgoers -- ranging in age from 13 to 22 -- and three police officers were killed in the stampede at the News Divine club in Mexico City, which police targeted because of suspicions about rampant drug use and underage drinking.

"What happened fills the city with consternation, pain and indignation," Ebrard said at a news conference Saturday. "The city is indignant, and its head of government is the most indignant. What we experienced yesterday is ethically unacceptable."

Ebrard announced that he had asked the Mexico City Human Rights Commission to investigate the incident, the first time in the city's history that the panel has been called on to probe an ongoing criminal matter, authorities said.

Video footage of the crowded, smoky club was posted on Web sites as investigators tried to figure out what went wrong.

Television also broadcast video of police storming the crowded club, as well as the club owner arguing with officers beneath a large sign reading "We do not sell alcohol to minors."

Mexican officials have been struggling to contain a swelling drug problem. As U.S. border enforcement has made it more difficult to smuggle drugs into the United States, Mexican drug traffickers have been increasingly successful at developing markets among the country's youth, whose drug use appears to be soaring to record levels.

More than 100 youths were detained overnight, but all were released early Saturday.