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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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31Dec15
Escaped Convicts in Argentina Shoot 2 Police Officers
Three escaped convicts shot and wounded two traffic police officers on Thursday, officials said, after a prison break that set off a round of finger-pointing between feuding politicians.
The convicts, serving life sentences for a triple homicide in 2008, jumped out of a car and fired at the two officers at a checkpoint 80 miles south of Buenos Aires. One of the officers was critically wounded.
The convicts — whose murder victims were said to have ties to a drug ring that sold ephedrine, used in the production of methamphetamine — escaped from a penitentiary in Buenos Aires Province on Sunday. Two leading politicians in the province immediately blamed each other for the breakout.
María Eugenia Vidal, the new governor of the province, said its top prison authorities, appointed by the previous administration, paved the way for the breakout to retaliate against her after she pledged to crack down on the narcotics trade. Ms. Vidal has moved to replace the prison officials, and one guard at the prison has been arrested.
But Aníbal Fernández, who was defeated by Ms. Vidal, accused her administration of plotting the escape. Mr. Fernández, an aide close to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former president, claimed that Ms. Vidal's coalition was returning a favor to Martín Lanatta, one of the fugitives who made bruising allegations against him during the election campaign in August. Mr. Lanatta had accused Mr. Fernández in a television interview of ordering the murders in 2008 so that he could gain control of the ephedrine trade. Mr. Fernández has denied any wrongdoing.
After the manhunt for the fugitives intensified on Thursday, Cristian Ritondo, the provincial security minister, said the three men had been located but not captured. The fugitives offered to turn themselves in if they were promised a transfer to a different prison, Mr. Ritondo said, but he said the authorities would not negotiate with them.
[Source: By Jonathan Gilbert, Intendente Alvear, Arg, 31Dec15]
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 | This document has been published on 04Jan16 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |