"Mercy killings" rock Uruguay

Authorities in Uruguay are investigating whether as many as 200 people who died at two Montevideo hospitals in recent months may have been victims of alleged "mercy killings" committed by two male nurses.

Police on Sunday arrested Marcelo Pereira, 40, and Ariel Acevedo, 46, and charged them with 16 counts of murder between them. The two took part in a series of euthanasia killings at two hospitals over a short period, prosecutors say. A female nurse was also charged with covering up their crimes.

"I thought I was God, I made a mistake, and now I am sorry," said Pereira following his arrest, according to his lawyer.

Uruguayan authorities called in experts from the Pan American Health Organization and Interpol to help in the investigations. Although the two are being charged with 16 deaths, health officials believe the number of confirmed victims will rise. The alleged killings took place at the private Sociedad Española hospital and the public Maciel Hospital.

Euthanasia is illegal in Uruguay as it is throughout the rest of Latin America. The families of the victims were notified on Monday but many who had loved ones who died recently at both hospitals were starting to come forward. Some 200 complaints were filed with prosecutors, urging investigations at all the hospitals in Montevideo.

Sunday's arrests came after a two-month undercover investigation dubbed "Operation Angels." The entire case, along with the details of the deaths, has shocked Uruguay and has made banner headlines in neighboring Argentina. "My client has admitted giving morphine to at least five patients [in cases] where morphine wasn't prescribed as a treatment," says Santiago Clavijo, who represents Pereira.

"He gave it to them, because according to him, they were patients with much pain and who were suffering. He couldn't stand seeing them suffer," the lawyer told a radio station.

The investigation began in January after police got a tip-off by someone who reported that some patients may have been poisoned to death. At first authorities believed that Pereira and Acevedo acted separately, but now officials say the two suspects would text each other to brag about their exploits, according to the Montevideo daily La República.

The family of 74-year-old Santa Gladys Lemos, one of the alleged victims, said that the woman was suffering from diabetes and wasn't very ill.

"I think they killed her because she bothered them too much," said Miriam Rodríguez, one of her daughters. "They had her tied down to the bed with the tubes from her IV."

Judge Rolando Vomero, the investigating judge, agreed that most of the apparent victims "were not terminally ill."

At a news conference on Monday, Interior Minister Eduardo Bonomi and Health Minister Jorge Venegas both described the case "as very painful."

"We are grateful to have officials from the Pan American Health Organization to help us reconstruct what happened," Venegas said.

Health authorities have said they will begin installing security cameras at all hospitals.