Mexican police capture ex-police chief; cardinal presses for justice

Published: 2004-02-26

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Mexican police have captured a former secret police chief accused of ordering the disappearance of a Marxist revolutionary in the 1970s, and a cardinal joined human rights groups in pressing for justice in the case. The Feb. 18 arrest of Miguel Nazar Haro is being hailed as an important step forward in prosecuting human rights offenders from Mexico's "dirty war" against leftist revolutionaries during the 1960s and 1970s. Government security forces allegedly made hundreds of activists "disappear" during the conflict, and Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said only justice could heal society's wounds. "Mexico has to seek out justice in order to become reconciled," Cardinal Rivera was quoted as saying in El Universal newspaper's Feb. 23 edition. Cardinal Rivera applauded Nazar's detention, though he urged authorities "to respect (Nazar's) rights and treat him with dignity." Nazar is accused of ordering the kidnapping of communist militant Jesus Piedra Ibarra in April 1975 in the northern city of Monterrey.

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