State authorities in Hidalgo have arrested six municipal police officers and a jail director in the murder of a medical doctor. Dr. Beatriz Hernández, 29, was arrested after a traffic accident on Wednesday of last week in Progreso de Obregón. She was driving a compact car and was involved in a four-car collision.
Because the accident was spectacular, Beatriz got out of her car to help the people involved, as she was a doctor at the Actopan General Hospital and Immediate Response Hospital. Witnesses of the accident assured that there was no refusal to assume her responsibility and the payment of the damages on her part.
However, she was violently detained by agents of the Progreso Obregón police and taken to the primary detention cells where she died hours later. The officers claimed she was intoxicated and took her into custody.
According to a press release issued by local authorities, Hernández was sent to a retention area before police took a break to eat. When they returned, they found that Hernández was dead.
The municipal government said on social media that before her death Hernández was visited by a man who said he was her father. She was later found “suspended by an object around her throat,” they said. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where her death was confirmed.
But according to a report by the news service ADN40, her father determined that Hernández had been beaten and asked police officers that she be released. He left his daughter to find out what the charges were against her but when he returned jail personnel were attempting to resuscitate the woman. The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating the death as a possible femicide.
Friends and family of the deceased gathered Thursday to protest and demand more information about the death. The Progreso de Obregón government maintains that Hernández was inebriated and took her own life after a fight with her father.
The mayor said in a press release that the local police officers’ arrests were illegal, given that they had voluntarily given witness statements. The mayor also said 50 state police officers turned up at municipal police headquarters and seized officers’ weapons.
Through social networks, friends of Beatriz demanded justice for her case, assuring that she was attacked by elements of the police prior to her death.
“Today a friend and colleague passed away! Beatriz Ruiz !!! It is unknown what would have happened at the hands of municipal police, she was treated badly, insults and strangling Bety, this in a town called #ProgresoDeObregon in the state of Hidalgo,” said David Toledo who identified himself as a friend of the victim in social networks.
