MEXICO CITY – Police in western Mexico have arrested a farmworker who allegedly hacked a doctor to death with a machete for refusing to treat his son.
Prosecutors in the Pacific coast state of Jalisco say 25-year-old suspect Ricardo Garcia Barajas has confessed to killing Dr. Laura Avila. Avila was found dead in the rural health clinic she was staffing on Dec. 26.
Police say they found the murder weapon at the scene. Mexican police have sometimes been accused of coercing confessions.
In a Friday statement, prosecutors quoted Garcia Barajas as saying his son fell ill and he took the infant to the clinic.
He said Avila told him the case wasn't an emergency and that he should return the next day during normal office hours, which angered him.
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