TOLEDO BLADE April 25, 2007
Protect FLOC staff, panel tells Mexico
The Mexican government has been told to protect members of the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee in Monterrey and keep the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights informed of the judicial process in the recent slaying of a FLOC organizer there, officials said.
The approval letter from the commission's executive secretary's office to the labor union stipulates the Mexican government has seven days to implement the instructions, beginning Monday.
Union President Baldemar Velasquez said yesterday that he, union attorneys, and the Mexican government are to meet May 3 in Mexico City to determine what steps the government will take to protect FLOC staff.
Mr. Velasquez said the Monterrey office will be renovated to make it more secure and a security system will be installed.
The commission granted FLOC's preventative measures petition that was made shortly after Santiago Rafael Cruz, 29, was beaten to death in the union's Monterrey office. The body of Mr. Cruz, who lived in Toledo since 1998 and went to Monterrey a few months ago, was found bound and gagged April 9.
Though Nuevo Leon authorities have had two weeks to examine FLOC records and Mr. Cruz's autopsy results and to question two people, they still report no leads, suspects, or motives in the murder, FLOC spokesman Michael Hale said. Authorities have not contacted Mr. Velasquez about prior break-ins at the office, which will be renamed after Mr. Cruz.
Mr. Velasquez said the recent development should be viewed with caution. He applauds the commission's decision and believes it will make a difference, but he is concerned about the slowness of the criminal investigation and that authorities aren't considering the economic-political motive he believes was behind the murder.
Mr. Velasquez said authorities think the slaying was probably a feud between unions. FLOC leaders think his death was ordered by someone who has been profiting from illegal fees charged to Mexicans who want to work in the United States.
|