Authorities in southern Oaxaca state said on Saturday they have arrested a man who allegedly raped and killed a US woman.
Omar Yoguez Singu, 32, told police he had consensual sex with Marcella Grace Eiler, 20, of Eugene, Oregon, and then killed her with a machete after an argument on Sept. 15, Oaxaca State Attorney General Evencio Ramirez said.
Eiler’s badly decomposed body was found on Wednesday in a shack 130km south of Oaxaca City, near the town of San Jose del Pacifico.
Ramirez said Singu was turned over to police on Wednesday in Mexico City by friends who first beat him up after he confessed to the crime.
Eiler’s father, John Eiler, of St. Louis, Missouri, said his daughter was a dance teacher and social activist in Oaxaca City, where she had lived on and off for the past three years.
“She was really trying to spend her energy as an observer for an indigenous rights organization,” John Eiler said in a telephone interview.
Eiler had traveled to San Jose del Pacifico to dance at a fundraiser, said Miguel Cruz of Oaxaca’s Popular Indigenous Council, an organization with which he said Eiler had worked since last year.
She also had lived for about a month with the family of a witness in the killing of Bradley Roland Will, a volunteer for Indymedia.org, Cruz said.
Will was fatally shot in October 2006 in Oaxaca City while filming protests by activists demanding the ouster of the state’s governor.
Will’s family said last year that they believed state officials were probably involved in his killing. State investigators arrested two town officials in 2006 but later released them after then-state Attorney General Lizbeth Cana suggested Will may have been shot by a protester.
Cruz said Eiler had complained that police in civilian clothes often sat in a parked car outside the witness’ family’s house and that they followed her.
“We’re asking authorities to conduct an efficient and transparent investigation and that they not taint her image because she dedicated herself to defending the rights of women and of indigenous people,” Cruz said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS