Mexico mayor embroiled in death case

By The Associated Press Comments 0
Published: November 8, 2009

MEXICO CITY — Mauricio Fernandez couldn’t have been happier.

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Here he was, being sworn in again as mayor of one of Mexico’s most exclusive communities, and he had wonderful news to share: "Black Saldana, who apparently is the one who was asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico City,” he told his cheering supporters.

The problem was that the barefoot, blindfolded corpse of "Black Saldana” — whose real first name is Hector — wasn’t found for another three and a half hours, according to Mexico City prosecutors. And he wouldn’t be identified for two days.

Now this cartel-plagued nation, usually nonchalant about an ongoing spate of kidnappings, extortion and executions, is engrossed with this not-so-straighforward slaying that links drug lords and politicians.

And the mayor is facing his own tough questions about the killings. What exactly did he mean when he said that "by fair means or foul, we are not going to accept any kind of kidnapping … and if not, they will pay for it”?

Fernandez offered an intriguing explanation. He said U.S. authorities tipped him off that Saldana was planning to kill him. And he said unspecified sources told him Saldana was dead hours before bodies were found.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Paul Knierim in Washington D.C. said Tuesday U.S. agents routinely coordinate with Mexican investigators trying to crack down on cartels.

Newspapers asked how Fernandez could have known of the deaths before police even arrived. A columnist in one of the nation’s leading newspapers, Reforma, speculated he might have ties to the killing. "Death squads?” the headline asked.

During a radio interview Tuesday, Fernandez said he’s setting up a group to clean up crime.

"Will this cleaning group act outside the law?” he was asked.

"In some form that’s correct,” he said.