Police offers hair-raising details about the death of a Nicaraguan
consul in New York
Nicaragua's consul to
the U.S.: Beheaded in his Bronx home.
La Premerisma, Nicaragua
'Hair-Raising Details' on U.S. Death of Nicaraguan
Consul
"The beheaded
cadaver of César Mercado was found by a driver who was to take him to his
office at the United Nations, where he served as acting consul. He was dressed,
but barefooted."
"We're
asking the United States to investigate the case as expeditiously as possible,
so the body can be given a Christian burial. ... We all know that violence in countries
like the United States are the highest in the world."
NEW
YORK: With both
hands, the corpse of Nicaraguan diplomat César Antonio Mercado Pavón was
clutching some hair that investigators are examining, police said on Friday. [According
to New York police, there were ten hairs in his right hand and five in the left].
The beheaded
cadaver of César Mercado was found by a driver who was to take him to his
office at the United Nations, where he served as acting consul. He was dressed,
but barefooted.
Investigators
have yet to determine whether this was homicide or suicide, said New York Chief
of Police Raymond Kelly, since at least some of the wounds appear to be self-inflicted
[video below].
Mercado,
34, used to travel by subway at 7:30am, but when he didn't arrive, a driver was
sent to his apartment where he found the door unlocked. After opening it, he
found the corpse on the floor, clothes stained with blood. The consul had been
stabbed and beheaded.
The small apartment's bathroom sink was
red with blood and two knives were found, one 12 inches long near the sink and small
paring knife in it, police said.
Mercado
was stabbed about a dozen times in the abdomen, but according to the initial
autopsy it seems that some of the wounds may have been self-inflicted.
Commissioner Kelly said more investigation is needed.
Kelly
said that these were "hesitation wounds," in contrast to
critical types of stabbings usually inflicted by somebody determined to kill.
"It's something that causes the medical examiner to pause for thought,”
said the police chief.
Security
cameras didn't work in the Bronx apartment building Mercado lived in, but police
are looking in the area for any video that might be of use. The last time neighbors
saw Mercado was about 3pm Wednesday. Telephone records are also being examined.
A
call to the Permanent Mission of Nicaragua in the United States wasn't immediately
returned. His friends said that Mercado had been ill in recent weeks and that
he was diabetic. They described him as affable, friendly, considerate, and with
no enemies.
The
police still have no motive. Paul Browne, the New York Police Department’s
deputy commissioner, the spokesman, confirmed that the apartment hadn't been ransacked.
Nicaragua's
ambassador to the United Nations, Jaime Hermida, said, "Right now, we're
in the office, awaiting the result of the police investigation”.
This
week, diplomats from 192 countries are in New York to attend the opening of the
United Nations General Assembly, among them Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Mercado
has lived in New York since 2001, when he was appointed administrative
assistant to the previous consul, José Antonio Flores Lovo, who served for eight
years. Lovo was named Consul General of Nicaragua in New York in 2002, after occupying
the post of assistant consul.
Marlene
González, president of the Monsenior Oswaldo Mondragon Humanitarian Foundation
of Nicaragua, described Mercado as a single man dedicated to his work. "He
would always say: 'I'm busy, but I'll make time for you.'”
Recently,
González says she observed a change in the diplomat's appearance. According to
her, he had lost weight and looked pale. "I saw him on Monday and noticed a
change,” said González. "He told me his health wasn't good.”
On a
Web Site Nicaraguans in New York,
Lidia Hunter wrote,"He shared no intimacies, but in recent days he looked
distracted, pensive and more than one spoke of his death. Last week I attended
a barbecue at a mutual friend's house, where he said that if he died, he wanted
to be cremated, did not want his face displayed, and wanted his ashes returned
to Nicaragua.”
According
to Hunter, the president of the Nicaraguan Civic Cultural Committee in New
York, Oscar Sandoval, also heard his friend talk of his own death two months
ago. According Hunter, the name of the driver who found Mercado's corpse is
Edgar, but he couldn't confirm his last name.
Marlene
González' reflected in the young consul: "He was a gentleman, a modest
person who was very sensitive to the problems of Nicaraguans. The impression
he's made within the Nicaraguan and Latin American community was always
excellent.”
Also
on Friday, President Daniel Ortega asked the United States to clarify the
circumstances of the consul's death as soon as possible.
"We're
asking the United States to investigate the case as expeditiously as possible,
so the body can be returned to his native town of Masatepe and given a
Christian burial,” Ortega said during a meeting with evangelicals in Managua's
House of the People.
In
the meantime, the government said in a press release, "We ask that the police
of this North American city, as well as the office of mayor of the city, exert
every possible effort to clarify the facts as soon as possible.”
"We
all know that violence in countries like the United States are the highest in
the world,” said Ortega, who on Thursday made a telephone call to the slain
diplomat's sister and mother to offer his condolences.
