EL PASO, Texas, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The daughter-in-law of a slain Mexican activist and her son have been granted asylum in the United States, her attorney said.
The El Paso (Texas) Times reported Monica Arias Hernandez, 33, and her 6-year-old son, Eduardo Alejandro Frayre Arias, had requested asylum in March and received it in late August.
Hernandez is the daughter-in-law of Marisela Escobedo, who was killed on Dec. 18, 2010, outside Chihuahua state's governmental palace, where she had been protesting that day the absolution of Sergio Barraza Bocanegra, the presumed killer of her 16-year-old daughter, Rubi Frayre Escobedo.
The Times said Barraza confessed to the 2008 killing of Rubi Frayre Escobedo, whose body was found burned and mutilated in a garbage dump, but state judges found him not guilty, saying there wasn't enough physical evidence to sentence him.
Marisela Escobedo had been a witness at his trial, accused him of being a member of a drug cartel and called the state government inept.
Arias Hernandez's attorney, Carlos Spector, called the decision to grant her asylum "a great victory that shows the entire world that there are hopes in this country, that they will not continue closing the doors on the victims of the Mexican government. There are bases for political asylum."
Escobedo's son, Juan Frayre Escobedo, and Arias Hernandez's husband, Eduardo Alejandro Frayre Escobedo, also are seeking political asylum.
