Federal authorities requested a “red alert” from Interpol for the arrest of former Puebla governor Mario Marín, the attorney general said yesterday.

Alejandro Gertz Manero told a press conference that a federal court made the request at the same time that arrest warrants for the ex-governor and four accomplices were issued on April 11 in connection with the 2005 torture of investigative journalist Lydia Cacho.

He said Interpol has been actively searching in the 194 member countries affiliated with the international police organization.

“The same day that we received the arrest warrant that we asked for, [Interpol] issued the red alert, and whoever says differently is not telling the truth.”

However, there is no notice listed for Marín on the Interpol website nor does his name turn up anywhere on the site.

Cacho was detained by Puebla police in Cancún in 2005 on defamation charges following the release of her book, The Demons of Eden, which exposed a pedophilia ring.

Cacho faced torture and abuse while in custody, and the case became a national scandal when a tape was leaked of a conversation between one of the supposed leaders of the pedophilia ring, Kamel Nacif, and Marín plotting to punish the journalist.

Last week, police apprehended Juan Sánchez Moreno, a former official in the Puebla Attorney General’s Office and one of the key suspects in the investigation, but Cacho accused federal authorities on Twitter of allowing Marín, Nacif and their accomplices time to escape by not requesting the alert from Interpol at the same time as the arrest warrant.

The attorney general declined to comment on the search’s progress and whether authorities know the current location of the fugitive former governor.

Source: El Financiero (sp)