Fugitive Suspected in Mexico ‘Dirty War’ Dies

A fugitive former police commander under investigation for his suspected role in Mexico’s “dirty war” has turned up dead about a month after a historic warrant was issued for his arrest.

Isidro Galeana, who was accused of kidnapping a leftist schoolteacher in 1974, was buried Saturday at a cemetery in Acapulco, in the Pacific state of Guerrero.

Witnesses said he died Friday night of a heart attack, although it was not clear if he died in a hospital or at a residence.

Galeana, 69, had diabetes and liver and lung problems. He had been on the run from authorities since the warrant was issued in late November.

Galeana’s death is the latest twist in the government’s attempt to investigate hundreds of crimes committed during Mexico’s war against leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Galeana’s son, Gustavo, said over the grave site that his father was a victim of government persecution.

“He always defended the institution, although after, for political reasons, he was betrayed by the government,” Gustavo Galeana said.

Two years ago, Mexican President Vicente Fox appointed a special prosecutor to investigate repression by state security forces under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The warrant for Galeana’s arrest was the first issued in the investigations.

Galeana went into hiding after the unprecedented arrest warrant was issued against him for the abduction of 35-year-old Jacob Najera in 1974. The teacher was never seen again.