Frontera NorteSur Jan - Mar 2010

Cinthia Irasema Ramos' dream was to become a nurse, her father said at her funeral.  Found dead on a sidewalk in central Ciudad Juárez on December 3, 2004, the 21 year old woman's life was cut short near the bar where she worked.  Police have yet to make an arrest in the case although family member's believe Ramos' boyfriend may have been involved. 

On November 2, 2004, Martha Lizbeth Hernández, age 16, was murdered and raped .  José Luis Montes, a carpenter, confessed to the crimes saying that he was drunk and had been using cocaine prior to killing Hernández.  

Montes was spotted by city police while allegedly raping Hernández who he had apparently already choked to death.  He tried to flee the scene but was apprehended by police.  

In between these killings another body was found on November 25 in the outskirts of Cd. Juárez, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News.  

Law Enforcement Investigated

The federal investigation of the Cd. Juárez femicides led by María López Urbina has been criticized as "garbage" by organizations that represent victims' families, particularly because the investigation has not led to any new arrests.  However, another part of the investigation is aimed at identifying state law enforcement officials that were negligent in properly investigating the crimes.  One of those Chihuahua officials named by López's investigation is Zulema Bolívar García who was the special  investigator into the femicides between July 2001 and March 2002. 

In mid-November 2004 Bolívar testified to López's investigation that in November 2001 it was the Chihuahua Attorney General and the Assistant Attorney General at that time, Arturo González Rascón and José Manuel Ortega Aceves, that steered her investigation of the eight bodies that were found in a Cd. Juárez cotton field in that month. Bolívar also stated that it was Ortega Aceves who framed two bus drivers for the crime, Javier García Uribe and Gustavo González Meza. 

Although former Attorney General González Rascón is no longer active in state law enforcement, Ortega Aceves is the current director of the legal department of the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.  

Patricia González Rodríguez, the current state attorney general who was appointed by the state's new governor, José Reyes Baeza, to clean up Chihuahua law enforcement, has said that she can not investigate Ortega Aceves or take other action against him unless Bolívar testifies against him at the state level.  So far, Bolívar has only made statements to the federal investigation.  

For one of the bus drivers, Bolívar's statements offer no hope: Gustavo González Meza died in jail under suspicious circumstances.  García Uribe, the other driver, was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in the death of the eight women found in November 2001. 

Sources: 
Norte (Cd. Juárez), December 7, 2004.  Articles by Salvador Castro and Margarita Hernández. 
Diario (Cd. Juárez), November 6, 2004.  Article by Pedro Sánchez and Javier Saucedo. 
Norte (Cd. Juárez), November 17, 2004.  Article by Carlos Huerta. 
Diario (Cd. Juárez), November 18, 2004.  Article by C. Cruz and A. Rodríguez.