2003News

Orlando Martinez case still news

With the renewal of hearings in the case of murdered journalist Orlando Mart?nez, there are more and more revelations of infighting among those police and armed forces officials who flanked President Joaqu?n Balaguer. Most of today?s papers carry the story of the deposition made by former Deputy Chief of Police, Robinson Brea Gar?. The general headed the investigative commission that looked into the 1975 murder of Mart?nez. Brea Gar? attributed the killing to ?intolerance? on the part of some officials of any criticism of their actions. According to Rafael Nivar (the son of General Nivar Seijas, one of the accused killers), General Joaqu?n Antonio Pou Castro asked him to set up a meeting with Nivar Seijas in order to explain things. According to Rafael Nivar, Pou Castro told him to tell his father: ?I was fulfilling my orders.? Pou Castro said that this statement was ludicrous, as his differences with Nivar Seijas were well known at the time. He said that he was falsely implicated in the crime and was the victim of an attempted murder because he had confiscated two trucks loaded with wood that belonged to a police general named Rafael Guzm?n Acosta.