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newsAlso in this section: Two
bomberos electrocuted, five others injured, in Colon Free Zone blaze Martín Torrijos on the campaign trail Miguel Antonio Bernal on the campaign trail Partido Alternativa Popular on the campaign trail Méndez
fights charges that he tried to set up a shooting incident
Saúl Méndez in the Independence Day parade Photo by Eric Jackson Méndez seeks to discredit charges against himself by Eric Jackson
Saúl Méndez, the number two leader of the militant SUNTRACS construction workers' union, briefly went underground to avoid arrest on charges that he provided a pistol and paid $500 to a criminal for the purpose of starting a shooting incident at an August protest march by the labor / left FRENADESO coalition. His lawyers got the arrest order withdrawn, but the prosecution on weapons and illicit association charges continues. The allegation is that Méndez personally approached one Frederick Mayre Barcasnegras, by all accounts whom he had never before met, and hired him to to commit the crime. Then, it is alleged, Mayre's family urged him not to carry out the plan, whereupon he contacted a radio disc jockey, Félix "DJ McCoy" García, by telephone. Mayre went with García to prosecutors with the story that's the basis for the charges against Méndez. Méndez and his supporters dismiss the allegations as a recycle of an old Norieguista tactic of hiring criminals to make baseless charges against political dissidents and union militants. Recently SUNTRACS and FRENADESO have been circulating copies of Mayre's criminal record, which defense lawyers say that prosecutors are refusing to include in the case file upon which judgment in the case against Méndez will be based. That record includes seven criminal convictions, for which Mayre served time in prison several different times. The convictions are for robbery, three different incidents of larceny, receiving stolen property, and two incidents of illegal possession of weapons. Of course, prosecutors would say that someone seeking to do what they allege that Méndez tried to do would seek out a criminal to hire for that purpose. In another line of attack the Méndez defense is claiming that despite DJ McCoy's testimony that Mayre contacted him by telephone on August 16, phone company records show no such call. Also in this section: Two
bomberos electrocuted, five others injured, in Colon Free Zone blaze Martín Torrijos on the campaign trail Miguel Antonio Bernal on the campaign trail Partido Alternativa Popular on the campaign trail Méndez
fights charges that he tried to set up a shooting incident News
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