Human Rights Defender Kerry Kennedy Detained, Threatened by Mexican Military http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2012/04/human-rights-defendor-kerry-kennedy-detained-threatened-mexican-militar
Robert F. Kennedy's Daughter Nearly Meets Tragic Fate at Drug-War Checkpoint
A squad of heavily armed Mexican soldiers this past weekend accosted Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, while she and her 14-year-old daughter were traveling in southwestern Mexico to attend Easter Sunday mass.
The incident played out in the Mexican state of Guerrero, near the city of Acapulco, at a time when the Mexican military is under increasing scrutiny for human rights violations related to its role in the war on drugs.
Also accompanying Kennedy, president of theRobert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, was Mexican human-rights defender Abel Barrera as well as a team of lawyers — who attempted to point out to the military-unit commander that the soldiers were violating Mexican law, but to no avail.
“We were stopped, harassed, threatened and detained by eight soldiers in battle fatigues brandishing automatic weapons,” Kennedy writes in a recent op/ed penned for the Inter Press Service, in which she recounts her experience.
After establishing that we were an international human rights organization, the lieutenant responsible for the checkpoint maliciously demanded to inspect our belongings for narcotics. He raged menacingly, “I am the authority, I have the power.” At that moment, my heart stopped.
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