Mexican authorities have arrested a former state governor on charges of having ordered the illegal arrest and torture of an important reporter who was investigating his protection of a pedophile ring.
Mario Marín, the former governor of the state of Puebla, was due to appear before a judge on Thursday after being arrested the previous day in Acapulco.
Marín, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, took over the government of the state of Puebla in 2005. In the same year, reporter Lydia Cacho published the book The Demons of Eden, which involved several wealthy businessmen in a pedophile network.
In December 2005, Marín sent police from Puebla to arrest Cacho in Cancún on charges of defamation. She was taken 20 hours to Puebla, during which the police teased her, threatened to rape and put a gun in her mouth.
The case became a national scandal after a recorded telephone conversation leaked in which Marín was heard plotting with one of the men cited in Cacho’s book.
“Yesterday I gave that old bitch a good slap,” said Marin. “She’s been talking a lot, so let’s see if she gets the message and learns the lesson.”
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.
Leopoldo Maldonado, lawyer for Artículo 19 for freedom of the press and Cacho’s representative, told Milenio TV on Thursday that Marín is now being held in the same prison in Cancún where businessman Jean Succar Kuri is already convicted of his participation in the ring . serving his sentence.
“The accomplices are reunited, but now in very different conditions,” wrote Cacho on Twitter on Thursday. “There is no longer a luxurious party, nor are girls transformed 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 is now living abroad after intruders broke into his home, stole whistleblowing equipment and files and killed his two dogs. She took her case to international organizations when the Mexican justice system failed to act.
In 2018, the UN 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.”
“Lydia is very excited, but aware that the risk increases,” said Maldonado on Thursday.