Police Investigate Murder of Commissioner

MANAGUA – National Police Chief Aminta Granera said this week that the best investigative agents in the police force have been assigned to look into the murder of Anti-Corruption Unit Commissioner Manuel Guillermo Obando.

“We are directly involved in the investigation,” Granera said at the July 13 funeral of the fallen officer. “We haven’t slept and we aren’t going to until we solve this murder.”

Obando’s body was found by police July 12 off the side of the highway 8 kilometers southwest of Managua.

He had been missing for several days and his body was already in an advanced state of decomposition when discovered.

The cause of death was bleeding from a severe beating that left seven serious wounds on his abdomen, chest and neck.

Due to the decomposition, forensic police were unable to determine whether or not he had been tortured as well.

Police have not yet mentioned a possible motive for the crime, although family members are claiming it was a form of payback by organized crime for his work in the police’s anti-corruption unit.

“All of the hypotheses have been presented and we are investigating several possibilities,” Granera said. “We have sufficient information and a series of clues that will allow us to advance in the investigation.”

Granera said that several people have been called to testify, but said no one has been arrested as of yet.

The police chief said Obando was not working on any relevant cases at the time of his disappearance and death.

“I can’t say that (his murder) was a product of organized crime, but I don’t doubt that that organized crime wouldn’t hesitate to do something like this to anyone of us in the National Police,” Granera said.