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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mexican police arrested in mayor’s murder

Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities on Friday announced the arrest of six police officers as suspects in the murder this week of the mayor of a wealthy northern city.

The suspects included a police agent who served as the mayor’s bodyguard. But as Jose Alberto Rodriguez and the other five suspects were paraded before journalists Friday, Rodriguez protested his innocence. “I did not participate!” he called out.

Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of Santiago, was grabbed from his home Sunday night by at least 15 armed assailants wearing uniforms from a defunct police agency. His bound body was found Wednesday morning, dumped alongside a road.

Adrian de la Garza, head of the state investigations bureau, said four of the suspects kept watch over the highway leading to Cavazos’ house while a fifth accompanied gunmen, who were working for drug traffickers, in the abduction itself. It was originally thought that Rodriguez, the guard, was a victim because he had said he was also nabbed and stuffed into a car trunk before being released unharmed.

State prosecutor Alejandro Garza said the detainees had “confessed” and implicated other participants.