MEXICO CITY (AP) – The arrest of a former Mexican governor on charges of ordering the torture of a journalist has given hope to activists who believe the case may reveal the links between powerful businessmen, politicians and organized crime and strike the notorious Mexico’s impunity.
Mario Marín, who ruled the central state of Puebla from 2005 to 2011 for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, was arrested on Wednesday in Acapulco and transported to a prison in Cancún. He is accused of human rights violations in relation to the illegal arrest and torture of journalist Lydia Cacho, who in his 2005 book detailed the role of other powerful men in a pedophilia network that attacked girls.
Press freedom organization Artículo 19, which represents Cacho, said Marín could face up to 12 years in prison on charges of torture if convicted.
At a court hearing on Thursday, Marín, 66, asked to await the case under house arrest, alleging kidney problems and fear of getting COVID-19 in prison. The judge denied the request, said Artículo 19 via Twitter.
According to Artículo 19’s lawyer, Leopoldo Maldonado, there is sufficient evidence against Marín, including recorded telephone conversations. He said the fact that the judge denied his request for house arrest was a good initial sign.
Marín’s trial could be a “watershed event” that “breaks the impunity pact that has prevailed in Mexico for decades,” said Maldonado.
Cacho’s “The Demons of Eden” detailed the exploitation of girls and accused the powerful textile magnate José Kamel Nacid of buying girls for $ 3,000. Nacif sued Cacho for defamation and asked his friend Marín to arrest her.
Cacho reminded Thursday in an interview with W Radio that Marín ordered her to be tortured so that she could retract everything she published. In December 2005, Marín sent the police to arrest Cacho in Cancún and take her to Puebla. During the 20-hour trip, she was tortured.
“He is the first governor arrested for acts of torture against journalists and is also linked to a network of boy and girl traffickers,” said Cacho.
Interior Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero acknowledged on Thursday that when she was a Supreme Court judge there were “violations” of Cacho’s rights and spoke of the “psychological torture” she suffered. He added that the presumption of innocence against Marín must be maintained in order to guarantee a fair trial.
The evidence collected by Cacho contributed to the arrest, in 2004, of businessman Jean Succar Kuri in the United States. He is serving time for child pornography in the same prison in Cancún where Marín is being held.
“The accomplices are reunited, but now in very different conditions,” wrote Cacho via Twitter on Thursday. “There are no more luxurious parties, nor girls turned into victims at the hands of pederasts. There is no toast or celebration. Journalism is the way to justice ”.
Cacho has been threatened for years and currently lives abroad because he fears for his safety. She took her case to international organizations when the Mexican justice system failed to act.
In 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee recognized the violation of Cacho’s human rights. In January 2019, the current Mexican government publicly apologized to Cacho for his arbitrary arrest. At the time, Cacho said, “we want each and every one of the brains on trial.”
For years, Marín moved freely in public, despite Cacho’s claims. Finally, in 2019, a Quintana Roo state judge issued an arrest warrant against him.
“Lydia is very excited, but aware that the risk increases,” said Maldonado on Thursday.
A policeman convicted of torturing Cacho was convicted and served a prison sentence. But there are three more police officers in jail awaiting sentencing and four more fugitives, Maldonado said.
Among the fugitives is Nacif, a Mexican attorney general located in Lebanon. Another is the former chief of the Judicial Police of Puebla.
Jan-Albert Hoosen, Mexican representative of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, celebrated the capture of Marín, but warned that this “justice process that has been pending for years is just a step because other suspects await arrest”.
Cacho said experts warned her that the chances of retaliation could increase with Marín’s arrest, but she said on Thursday that she would consider her search for justice.
“Things will change if we persist,” she said.