Article published May 26, 2007
Mexico detains 3 in FLOC activist's killing
Union, lawyers believe case 'fabricated'
BLADE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Mexican state prosecutors reportedly have detained three suspects in the killing of a former Toledo union activist who aided Mexicans in the U.S. guest-worker program, but officials for the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, or FLOC, called the case "completely fabricated."
According to Mexican authorities, at least one of the three men confessed to killing Santiago Rafael Cruz. Mr. Cruz, Mexican investigators said, was intoxicated and murdered during a fight over a $4,500 debt.
But FLOC attorneys who reviewed the reported confession earlier yesterday "didn't believe a word of the government's case," said Baldemar Velasquez, founder of the Toledo-based FLOC.
The man accused of killing Mr. Cruz, identified to FLOC by Mexican authorities as Jaime Martinez Amador, has a record of human and drug trafficking, Mr. Velasquez said.
Mr. Cruz's body was found April 9 at the Monterrey office of the union, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, that fights for the rights of migrant workers in the eastern United States. He had been bound, beaten, and then killed.
Mr. Cruz was helping Mexicans in the U.S. guest-worker program fight for their rights as legal, temporary workers in the United States. Having spent years working for FLOC in Toledo, Mr. Cruz was sent to Monterrey because of his "honesty and integrity," Mr. Velasquez said.The Monterrey office assists migrants living in Mexico, especially those who are being asked to pay Mexican recruiters exorbitant fees for legal visas.
Mexican police departments are no-toriously corrupt and investigators were under international pressure to make an arrest, said Michael Hale, a spokesman for FLOC.
Both he and Mr. Velasquez said Mr. Cruz and the director of the office were together nearly round-the-clock. Mr. Cruz wouldn't have time to have extorted money from the alleged killer, they said.
Mexican authorities first said they believed Mr. Cruz was killed in a dispute over a woman. Later, they said his murder was a result of a dispute with another union. The idea that Mr. Cruz was extorting money from his killer is "preposterous," Mr. Hale said.
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