tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29022621443205508102011-11-27T17:08:51.278-08:00worldwonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04503570549444497407noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902262144320550810.post-30614016012578729672008-11-23T04:40:00.001-08:002008-11-23T04:51:44.698-08:00By Daniel Schweimler<br />BBC News, Buenos Aires<br /><br />A former police chief in Argentina, wanted for alleged crimes against human rights, has shot himself dead in front of television cameras.<br /><br />Mario Ferreyra was giving an interview on top of a water tank at his home in the northern province of Tucuman.<br /><br />Police were coming to arrest him when he killed himself.<br /><br />Mr Ferreyra was wearing his customary black shirt and cowboy hat and told the interviewer that he was innocent and had not committed any crimes.<br /><br />He then told his wife, Maria, that he would love her forever, pulled a pistol from his boot and shot himself behind the ear.<br /><br />'Pact of silence'<br /><br />The Cronica television cameras were still rolling, transmitting live, as the distraught family gathered round.<br /><br />Police, who had come to arrest Mr Ferreyra at his farm, came running, but it was too late. He was dead.<br /><br />Mr Ferreyra was accused of kidnapping and torture during the military government that ran Argentina between 1976 and 1983.<br /><br />The victims' families say the suicide was part of a pact of silence - that the ex-police chief would not testify against former colleagues accused of kidnapping and killing some of the tens of thousands of Argentines who died during a period that became known as the "Dirty war".<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2902262144320550810-3061401601257872967?l=todaysnewsstory.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>worldwonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04503570549444497407noreply@blogger.com3