TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Baja News Wire

AFP - Canada has refused a respected Mexican policeman's bid for political asylum despite his claims he faces death threats at home from drug cartels and corrupt officials, media reports said Wednesday.

Gustavo Gutierrez Masareno, 38, fled his border town of Ciudad Juarez because Mexican authorities could not guarantee his safety, he told the daily Globe and Mail.

Once praised for leading an incorruptible homicide squad honored by the state governor for cracking cold case murders of women and girls in the region, he started receiving death threats last year after he confronted the Mexican army on civil rights abuses, said the paper.

The military had been deployed to bolster security in the city, said to be the most dangerous in the country.

According to his lawyer Mordechai Wasserman, Canada's refugee board rejected his refugee claim because they felt the dangers he faced in Mexico did not meet their standards for refugee status.

"They ignored that violence and corruption are out of control in the country and that despite the good intentions of the Mexican federal government, the police are either unable or unwilling to provide protection," Wasserman said.

More than 1,800 people have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez since the beginning of the year, despite the deployment of 8,500 soldiers.

Drug wars have cost 14,000 lives since the 2006 election of Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, who vowed to bring peace to the northern region by sending some 50,000 troops there.



More...

I'm guessing that the Canadians didn't want to set a precedent, lest there'd be a flood following behind.

It is quite a change in policy for Canada...

But, where would Calderon be if the police all started to flee from the country?