Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub-Editor: Joana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash
A former Mexican governor has been arrested for sending police thugs to torture a journalist who reported on a child sex trafficking ring in 2005.
Mario Marin, 66, former governor of the Mexican state of Puebla, was arrested in Acapulco in the state of Guerrero on 3rd February.
He had been on the run for the past two years after a judge from the same state issued a warrant for his arrest in 2019.
Marin was wanted for ordering the kidnapping and torture of a local journalist named Lydia Cacho in 2005 after she published a book called ‘The Demons of Eden’, according to local media.
In the book, Cacho mentioned the names of two businessmen she accused of running a child sex trafficking ring who later used their influence over Marin to ensure the journalist was stopped in her tracks, according to reports.
Their names were reported as Jean Succar Kuri and Kamel Nacif.
Local media said she was forcefully taken from her home in Quintana Roo and brought to Puebla where Marin was governor while ministerial agents threatened to kill and torture her in the car.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, an audio conversation between Marin and Nacif was leaked in 2006 that apparently referred to the alleged torture. (https://bit.ly/3rmGoat)
In the recording, Nacif says: “What’s going on my precious ‘gober’ (a term of endearment to refer to governors)?”
Marin responds: “No, you are the hero in this movie buddy. I finished giving this old bag a bump on the head. I told her we respect the law in Puebla.”
However, despite the audio recording, Marin remained unpunished until the United Nations recognised that the journalist’s rights had been violated, leading to the arrest warrant in 2019. He was finally arrested on 3rd February.
Cacho issued a statement after hearing the news, saying: “I have been seeking justice for 14 years after being tortured by this accomplice in the network of #childpornography. We are going after all of them.”
She previously spoke with El Pais in 2019 and said: “I am the key witness of these trials and I will be there to ratify anything that is necessary.
“This is not a hunger for justice, this is the hunger of an entire country tired of being ruled by war and fear of not being able to eat each day.”
The trial date has not yet been announced.
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