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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
Former Mexican Security Chief Cleared
 Will Weissert - Associated Press
| | Miguel Nazar Haro had been accused of a direct role in the disappearance of six members of Brigada Lacandona, a 1970s guerrilla faction. |
A Mexican judge has dismissed charges against a former domestic security chief accused in the disappearance of six reputed guerrillas at the height of the government's "dirty war" against insurgents.
Miguel Nazar Haro had been accused of a direct role in the disappearance of six members of Brigada Lacandona, a 1970s guerrilla faction. But the judge found there was not enough evidence to show he was involved.
The ruling Friday was the second legal victory for Nazar Haro, who headed the now-dissolved Federal Security Directorate from 1978 to 1982. An appeals court ruled previously that there wasn't enough evidence to pursue charges he was responsible for the 1975 kidnapping of Jesus Piedra Ibarra, an alleged guerrilla who disappeared.
Nazar Haro, in his 80s, was arrested in 2004 in the northern city of Monterrey and briefly imprisoned before being returned to Mexico City and placed under house arrest.
Mexican media said the latest ruling means Nazar Haro has been freed from house arrest, but those reports could not be confirmed.
The ruling follows earlier setbacks for special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, tapped by President Vicente Fox to shed light on wrongful imprisonment, torture, forced disappearances and slayings of thousands of radical leftists, as well as farming and union leaders during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
At the time, Mexico's presidency was controlled by a single party, which moved to crush small bands of guerrillas plotting its overthrow, largely from rural strongholds in southern states.
Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said in March that officials would likely close Carrillo's office once it produced a final report on government atrocities committed during the so-called "dirty war."
An unedited draft report leaked early this year alleges that hundreds of suspected subversives in the southern state of Guerrero were killed or disappeared during the administrations of presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Luis Echeverria, Jose Lopez Portillo and Adolfo Lopez Mateos.
The most brutal period was Echeverria's rule from 1970 to 1976, when the government "implemented a genocide plan that was closely followed during his reign," according to the unedited draft. During that time, guerrillas were blamed for a series of kidnappings and attacks on soldiers. |
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