| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2008 
Mexico Arrests 2 in Killing of US Journalist Brad Will
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
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| | In this Oct. 27, 2006 photo, protesters aid injured cameraman Bradley Roland Will, from the U.S., who was shot and later died during clashes between unidentified gunmen and protesters who were demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz in Oaxaca, Mexico. On Friday, Oct. 17, 2008, Mexican federal prosecutors announced that two people, Juan Manuel Martinez and Octavio Perez, were arrested for the fatal shooting of Bradley Roland Will. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) | | |
Mexico City – Two supporters of a protest movement in southern Mexico have been arrested for the 2006 fatal shooting of U.S. journalist-activist Bradley Roland Will, federal prosecutors said Friday.
A spokesman for the protesters — thousands of whom seized the city of Oaxaca for almost five months that year — denied the two were involved in the Oct. 27, 2006 shooting death of Will, who was filming a clash between protesters and gunmen when he was shot.
The 36-year-old Will was working for Indymedia.org at the time, and was amid a throng of protesters on the outskirts of Oaxaca as they faced gunshots fired from some distance away by pro-government forces.
Prosecutors have said the shot that killed Will came from close range, and that an unidentified voice on his own video can be heard apparently demanding that he stop filming.
Federal deputy prosecutor Victor Corzo said in a news conference that one of the suspects, Juan Manuel Martinez, was the gunman, and Octavio Perez was an accomplice who helped cover up the crime. Officials are looking for eight other alleged accomplices.
Both suspects were supporters of the radical movement known as the People's Assembly of Oaxaca, or APPO, which had seized control of Oaxaca's center to push for the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
A federal police raid retook the city just days after Will's death.
Corzo did not explain why the two detained men would have shot Will, who supported their movement and was documenting the conflict as a videojournalist.
APPO spokesman Florentino Lopez said the two are innocent and accused pro-government gunmen of firing the shots that killed him.
"These detentions are part of a wave of government aggressions against the APPO," Lopez said in a telephone interview.
Will's family also says it believes supporters of Gov. Ruiz killed him, and has criticized government investigations as incomplete and inept.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission recently said both state and federal police mishandled the investigation of Will's killing by failing to interview witnesses, collect relevant evidence or complete an autopsy.
Human rights group Amnesty International expressed concern in a statement on Friday over the detention of the two men, saying prosecutors "appear not to be properly evaluating the forensic evidence, nor adequately investigating other leads."
State investigators previously arrested two town officials in Will's killing but later released them after then-state Attorney General Lizbeth Cana, a political ally of Ruiz, suggested that he may have been shot by protesters.
The human rights commission says Will was among at least a dozen people killed during months of conflict and protests that accused Ruiz of rigging his electoral victory and repressing opponents. |
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