Mexico Questions Ex-Domestic Spy Chief

Prosecutors called Mexico’s former domestic spy chief in for questioning Thursday over allegations that he tortured detainees during a government campaign against leftist activists in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

Miguel Nazar Haro also is accused of being involved with a secret police unit that massacred dozens of student protesters in 1968. He was director of the Federal Security Directorate from 1978 to 1982 and assistant director for several years before that. The agency no longer exists.

Nazar ignored reporters’ questions as he walked past a group of protesters and entered the offices of a special prosecutor appointed by President Vicente Fox to investigate government crimes.

Eduardo Maldonado, a spokesman for the prosecutors, said Nazar told authorities he was too ill to answer their questions. Prosecutors were preparing a series of written questions that Nazar’s attorneys will have 30 days to answer, Maldonado said.

“The most likely scenario is that Nazar Haro is going to repeat the same fantastic story: that he doesn’t know anything and that these were all legal actions,” Enrique Gonzalez Ruiz, a lawyer representing more than 100 families of alleged victims who are missing, said Thursday as he waited outside the hearing.

In a newspaper interview on the eve of his testimony, Nazar denied accusations of torture and of “disappearing” the activists.