Mexican prosecutors arrest 3 ex-officials in killings

MEXICO CITY – Prosecutors in the northern Mexico border state of Chihuahua have arrested an ex-prosecutor and two other former officials for abuse of authority, accusing them of failing to properly investigate the killings of eight women.

Investigators discovered the women’s decomposed remains in 2001 in a cotton field in Ciudad Juarez. They were part of a string of over 100 eerily similar murders of women in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The prosecutor’s office said Friday it had arrested a former state assistant prosecutor and two other ex-officials on abuse-of-authority and false-accusations charges because of “inconsistencies, omissions, negligence and irregularities.” The main suspect in the killings was released.

The Inter American Court of Human Rights had ruled in 2009 that officials failed to properly investigate the women’s deaths.