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Journalism of Courage
Paraguay8217;s top footballer Salvador Cabanas was in critical but stable condition on Monday following surgery in which doctors failed to remove a bullet lodged in his skull.
Dr. Ernesto Martinez,who was part of the surgical team,told reporters he could not say that the Paraguay striker was out of life-threatening danger,but he called his condition stable.
Cabanas,expected to lead Paraguay when the World Cup opens in June,was shot in the head in a pre-dawn attack on Monday at Bar Bar, a popular nightspot in a well-off Mexico City neighborhood.
We cannot guarantee that his life is out of danger, Martinez said.
Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Angel Mancera,after visiting the bar,said that robbery did not appear to be the motive in the attack on the forward who plays for Mexico City club America.
Suspect identified
Mancera later said that a suspect in the shooting had been identified from surveillance videos as a man with an accent from the northern state of Sinaloa long considered the cradle of Mexicos drug lords who travelled with at least one bodyguard. However,Mancera said that as of yet there is no indication of organised crime.
A bar cleaning employee said there had been an argument,a strong exchange of words between two men in the bathroom before a shot was fired. The videos showed that club employees did not attempt to stop the suspects as they hurriedly left the bar and got in a car.
America club president Michel Bauer said Cabanas was conscious when he arrived at the Mexico City hospital and was speaking as he prepared for surgery to remove a bullet lodged in the front part of his skull.
He was a bit confused and didnt know what had happened and he was asking where they were taking him and why they were taking him there, Bauer told Mexico television Televisa. Bauer said Cabanas wife told him the two were preparing to leave the bar when the shooting took place in a bathroom. His wife said she found her husband on the bathroom floor.
Mancera told reporters that four people were being questioned,two security guards and the manager of the bar,and a fourth person he identified as Cabanas brother-in-law. He said the brother-in-law volunteered to testify.
Cabanas,29,has played in the Mexico league since 2003 and is the highest profile player on the Paraguay national team.
