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September 21, 2005
Mexico's Secretary of Public Safety Killed in Helicopter Crash
Ramon Martin Huerta, the Mexican Secretary of Public Safety and former governor of the state of Guanajuato was killed on Wednesday when the helicopter in which he and eight others crashed into a mountainside due to thick fog. Tomas Valencia, the head of the Federal Preventive Police, and Jose Antonio Bernal, an inspector from the National Human Rights Commission, were also killed in the crash.
Cardenas was the head of the Mexican government's "war on drugs" and the rash of drug-related violence that has swept the border region this past year. Although Cardenas had received at least three death threats in the past week from Osiel Cardenas, the head of the Gulf Cartel drug organization who is currently in prison, officials deny any connection between those threats and the crash.
In a televised address, President Vicente Fox said that the victims were heroes who lost their lives in the line of duty and vowed to continue the fight against drugs in Mexico.
Posted by crispy at September 21, 2005 11:39 PM