MEXICO CITY, Feb 5, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A former Mexican governor appeared in
court Thursday on charges of ordering the torture of a journalist who accused
him of links to a child pornography ring.
Mario Marin was detained on Wednesday in Acapulco and transferred to Cancun
in connection with the allegations dating back to 2005, the year he became
governor of central Puebla state.
He appeared before a judge and was formally accused of the torture of
award-winning investigative journalist Lydia Cacho. The judge will decide on
February 10 whether to grant house arrest to the former governor.
Marin had been a fugitive since April 2019, when a court in the
southeastern state of Quintana Roo ordered his arrest.
“I have been seeking justice for 14 years for having been tortured by this
accomplice of child pornography networks,” Cacho wrote on Twitter.
The journalist, who now lives overseas, has for years worked to highlight
violence against women and children.
In her 2005 book “The Demons of Eden,” she lifted the lid on a pedophilia
network that she alleged was linked to Marin and several prominent
businessmen.
In December of that year, Cacho was arrested in Cancun by agents of the
Puebla prosecutor’s office, accused of slander and defamation.
She alleges that during the journey from Cancun to Puebla she was
psychologically tortured by the officials, who threatened to sexually abuse
her.
Cacho has won many international awards including the UNESCO-Guillermo Cano
World Press Freedom prize.
Rights group Reporters Without Borders regularly ranks Mexico as among the
world’s most dangerous countries for news media, with more than 100
journalists murdered since 2000.