President Leonel Fernández authorized the Attorney General’s office to begin procedures to request the extradition of former Dominican Air Force officer Mariano Durán Cabrera. He is said to be the person who fired the shots that killed journalist Orlando Martínez Howley, on 17 March 1975. The case is now being heard by the judiciary, after more than 20 years of being regarded as untouchable. Durán Cabrera was arrested on Saturday, 28 November in the Bronx, New York by the FBI, with the assistance of Dominican judicial authorities who located him after a seven month search, according to press reports. Durán Cabrera was in the Air Force since 1968, serving with the J2 Special Services of the Armed Forces until 1983. In 1983 he moved to New York City where he owned a liquor store in the Bronx. The Orlando Martínez case implicates several high ranking retired Dominican military.
