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Friday, September 22, 2000

Mexican police arrest, jail reporter
McAllen Monitor correspondent is accused of accepting a $2,000 bribe
Associated Press
REYNOSA, Mexico - A correspondent for The Monitor in McAllen has been arrested by Mexican police, charged with fraud and locked up in the city jail.
   Leonardo Andrade was arrested Wednesday in what newspaper executives fear could be an attempt to silence a reporter who has displeased Mexican officials.
   A lawyer for The Monitor spent the day in Reynosa negotiating Andrade's release, but he remained in the municipal jail late Thursday on $5,000 bail. Editor Armando Durazo and Publisher Ray Stafford said they hoped to bail out the reporter today.
   "If this is retaliation against him, then it goes against the institution of journalism," Durazo said. "He's written some sensitive stories that have raised the ire of Mexican officials."
   Andrade is accused of accepting more than $2,000 from the brother of a Mexican federal prisoner.
   Nicolas Montelongo Villarreal filed a complaint against Andrade, who has covered stories in the Reynosa federal prison, known as the Center for Social Readaptation. According to Montelongo, Andrade accepted the payment, promised to have his brother released, then pocketed the money.
   The journalist was charged with fraudulently promising services he didn't deliver, said Blanca Montellano, an assistant to Criminal Court Judge Mario Lozano Molina.
   "His character is such that I was surprised," Stafford said. "We find it kind of strange. He's fair and above board. He's done a good job."
   Andrade is a freelance writer and resident of Reynosa. He has been a Monitor correspondent for six years.
   Earlier this summer, he covered the story of Carlos Ibarra Perez, a Reynosa activist who offered $10,000 to anybody who killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
   A Reynosa judge later tried to depose Andrade in the case against Ibarra. The Monitor refused to let Andrade testify, and the Mexican court eventually gave in.

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