A roiling scandal over the attempts of a state governor to jail a reporter has raised questions about whether the rich and powerful are using their influence with politicians to silence critics.
It began in December last year when a Cancun journalist who had written a book about child pornography and pedophile rings in the resort town was arrested with no warning and driven across the country to the state of Puebla.
The writer, Lydia Cacho, was then charged under state law with defaming a textile businessman, Kamel Nacif, in her book, The Demons of Eden. In her book, Cacho wrote that Nacif was a friend of Jean Succar Kuri, a man accused of pederasty in Cancun, and was paying for his legal defense.
Defamation and slander are criminal charges in Mexico, and Cacho was held briefly in jail before being released while state prosecutors began their investigation into the charges. In Mexico an arrest can be made before the charges are substantiated.
Last week, however, someone gave an audiotape to a Mexican radio station and a national newspaper, La Jornada, that renewed the debate over Cacho's arrest.
The recording carries an ugly conversation celebrating Cacho's arrest between two male voices that the journalists from the newspaper and the radio station said had been identified as the Puebla State governor, Mario Marin, and Nacif.
On the tape, the voice that is said to be the governor's tells the other man that he has dealt a blow to someone presumed to be Cacho, using an expletive to refer to her.
"I told her here in Puebla the law is respected, and there is no impunity," the voice continues.
Marin has denied in a statement that the voice on the tape was his. Nacif has not made a statement.
The tape is seen by journalists and politicians here, though, as fueling the worst suspicions about how wealthy people with ties to politicians can use Mexico's legal system, which lacks grand juries, juries or open trials, to harass their enemies.
The release of the tape to the news media has also fueled a political uproar. Marin is from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the machine that ruled Mexico for 70 years. He immediately became the target of attacks from other parties.
Ruben Aguilar, a spokesman for Mexican President Vicente Fox, denounced the statements on the tape as "brutal and undignified" and announced that the case might be assigned to a newly appointed special prosecutor for crimes against journalists.
Members of the lower house of Congress from the other two major parties passed a resolution last Tuesday demanding Marin's resignation, then passed legislation calling for a congressional investigation, arguing that the governor had violated Cacho's constitutional rights and should be impeached. On Thursday, they voted to demand that he step down until the investigation is finished.
For her part, Cacho has said the tapes confirm her worst fears that she had been arrested out of vengeance for her writings and not for any legitimate reason. She said that state officials had gone so far as to threaten her with beatings and rape when she was released from jail.
"I think the case against me will be dropped, because it was a vengeful act," she told La Jornada.
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