Ex-Mexico Official Cleared in Trial 


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Ex-Mexico Official Cleared in Trial 

Tuesday, May 11, 1999; 2:57 a.m. EDT

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- A Guerrero state official has been cleared of any
wrongdoing in connection with a June 1995 massacre of 17 farm workers by
state police officers.

Rosendo Armijo, a former deputy secretary of public protection, was
allegedly ordered by then-Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer to have police block
the farm workers from attending a protest in the western Mexican state.

Prosecutors claimed Armijo rejected the order and refused to supervise the
police blockade that was organized, thus allowing the shooting massacre to
occur at a rural crossroads called Aguas Blancas. 

Armijo was accused of dereliction of duty, but criminal court Judge
Edmundo Roman Pinzon cleared him in a ruling Monday.

Thirteen former police officers have been convicted in the massacre and
sentenced to prison terms, along with former Guerrero state officials.

Fifteen other officers have been cleared, as has a former state official
whose videotape of the massacre showed police placing guns in the victims'
hands in an attempt to back their claim that the farm workers had been
armed.

Figueroa Alcocer, who said he hadn't anticipated his order to stop the
protesters would lead to violence, resigned in the wake of the scandal.

(c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
 
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