From Milenio, Nov. 1:
The police in civilian dress implicated in the murder of US photojrounalist Brad Will continue to be fugitives from justice.
Although Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz announced the detention of the presumed attackers of the journalist, in fact they have disappeared since Saturday Oct. 28, according to inquiry 1247/CR/06, issued by the state Attorney General’s Prosecutor for Organized Crime.
Abel Santiago Zárate, PRI town councilor for the municipality of Santa Lucía del Camino; Manuel Aguilar, “chief of patrols”; and the municipal police officers Juan Carlos Sumano and Juan Carlos Soriano, disregarded a call to appear after the shooting, in which the photographer for this newspaper Oswaldo Ramírez was also injured.
Due to this, the [state] Ministerial Police called yesterday for all state attorney general’s offices in the country to support in locating the suspects, according to a telephone interview with the police force director, Manuel Dark Rivas.
This “disappearance” came to light after Milenio’s investigations determined that none of the police agencies, prisons or jails in Oaxaca were holding the suspects, despite the governor’s claim that they were in custody.
For his part, Manuel Martínez Feria, PRI mayor [of Santa Lucía del Camino], admitted the attacks were perpetrated by the members of his administration, but said “they acted under their free will”.
This would appear to contradict an account in the Nov. 1 New York Times:
Five people have been detained in connection with the shooting, including two local officials and two police officers. State officials are running the investigation, and a spokesman for President Vicente Fox said that the federal government could take over the inquiry if state authorities did not do an adequate job. Human rights groups and a New York-based organization that dvocates on behalf of journalists have called for the federal government to take over the investigation immediately.
See our last posts on Mexico and the Oaxaca crisis.
