Frontera NorteSur May 2002

More arrests could take place, according to Fox. No group is free of corruption, he said, and there are on-going investigations of the Mexican Army and the Federal Attorney General's Office.

Last week's arrests were carried out primarily by the Policía Federal Preventiva, who arrived by the thousands in Baja California near Easter. Their presence has produced a drop in crime, according to Fox.

The governor of Baja California, Eugenio Elorduy, said that it is easy to root out corruption in BC law enforcement because there is so much of it.

Elorduy also stated that all of the thirty-one agents that were released from custody will remain suspended from duty until they are fully investigated.

The ten police agents that remain in custody are being held in Mexico City.

An April 12, 2002 article in the Méxicali newspaper La Crónica quoted a Federal Attorney General's Office official as saying that the arrested agents allegedly had ties to the Arellano Felix (Tijuana) cartel and had allegedly committed federal drug offenses.

Source: La Crónica (Méxicali), April 16, 2002. Article by José Santiago Healy & Daniel Salinas.

Released BC Police Agents Comment on Jail Experience

The Baja California newspaper La Crónica reports that BC police thanked federal law enforcement agents for the good treatment they received while in their custody in Mexico City and gave them hugs good-bye.

"They treated us magnificently, I wish we had police agents like them here [Tijuana]," said Jesús Jacobo Aguilar, a Tijuana police officer with more than thirty years on the force. "They gave us everything: doctors, medicine, towels, soap, everything. For this reason we don't have any complaints," he said.

Other officers told La Crónica that they learned new ways to treat arrested people that they would apply to their work back home.

The freed BC agents' major complaint is that they were arrested by gossip picked up on by federal agents in Tijuana.

"We work honestly, I don't know why the hell they arrested us: they didn't find anything on us and we're free. I don't know right now if I believe in these institutions," said Baltazar Cortés, a Méxicali police agent.

Alberto Galaz said that he only knew about the Arellano Félix cartel from the press. "I don't even have enough money to get home, I have a public defender," he said.

Trinidad Reyes Ríos, a Méxicali law-enforcement official, said that 18 city officers were taken to Mexico City and that the city would pay for their room and board and their flight home.

Source: La Crónica, April 15, 2002. Article by Agustín Pérez & Oscar Santeliz.

Victims' Mothers Take Over Chihuahua Capitol Building

Twenty-one mothers of serial-killing victims from Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua took over the Chihuahua State capitol on Tuesday, April 16, 2002, according to an article in the Cd. Juárez newspaper, El Norte.

The mothers were heard by a special commission of deputies (the US equivalent of representatives) from most Chihuahua political parties. Later, after some initial scheduling difficulties and threats made by the mothers, they were given a fifteen-minute appointment with Governor Patricio Martínez. That meeting ended up lasting two hours, according to the El Norte article.

At the Congress

In front of the Congress, Norma Ledezma, the mother of Paloma Angélica Escobar Ledezma who was raped and murdered in Chihuahua City in March 2002, told Chihuahua deputies "You listen to us, but you don't hear us. We need you to go beyond red tape, beyond one day of much publicity, one day of long articles in the newspapers . . . Today we want you to hear us."

One unnamed mother told the legislature, "We hope for solutions and no more promises. We've come to Congress to ask for solutions but soon we won't come here anymore, we'll take more drastic actions."

Another mother said, "They know who they are [the killers] but they don't do anything because they are covering up for someone."

The mothers' demands

In a document sent to the Congress, the mothers asked for the following:

1. That government authorities put all means available into stopping crimes against women. ENOUGH! Authorities have an obligation to act;

2. The immediate recovery of all young missing women, that are alive, that have disappeared from Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua City and every corner of the state;

3. Rapid results in investigations and a public presentation about all those involved, no matter who is involved and no matter who falls from power because of this. We won't accept scapegoats who are being used to cover for the real killers;

4. Sufficient money and opportunity for the investigation of disappearances and crimes against women including special agents, experts, criminologists, an immediate alert system for disappeared women and those thought responsible for the crimes, and a DNA laboratory in Cd. Juárez; and

5. The appearance of the Attorney General before the Congress to inform on investigations that have taken place so far.

Deputies respond

The meeting with Chihuahua deputies lasted one and half hours and the deputies made several proposals to the mothers. They agreed to propose to the full Congress that more funds be given to Cd. Juárez law enforcement and that the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social change its laws and provide better benefits to survivors as some only receive 200 pesos per month (approximately US$22).

The special commission of deputies also promised to ask the Federal Attorney General's Office to accept DNA evidence that comes from private labs. This is linked to demands for independent DNA analysis made by some of the mothers that do not trust any results coming from government labs.

The special commission of deputies was comprised of Martha Laguette Lardizábal (PRI), Alma Delia Urrutia Canizales (PRI), Elsy Paz Quintana (PAN), Héctor Barraza Chávez (PRD) and Jorge Arrellanes Moreno (PT).

Like some of the victims' mothers, many of the deputies were in tears as they spoke. Urrutia explained to the mothers what the Congress had done so far in terms of helping with the issue of disappeared women and what it can and cannot do in the future.

Laguette said to the mothers, "you came to make demands, and you have the right to do so, continue demanding justice . . . don't be afraid of anything."

The governor responds

Jesús Antonio Piñón Jiménez, the assistant attorney general for the state, was called into the meeting with the mothers by the governor himself. In front of the mothers, Governor Martínez instructed Piñón to give the mothers' daughters' cases individual attention.

The governor also spoke about crime in Cd. Juárez and ordered the creation of a state organization that will assist families of the disappeared to locate their missing relatives. The group will begin in Chihuahua City and will then have an office in Cd. Juárez, he said.

Governor Martínez also said that a DNA lab will be set up in Cd. Juárez but he was not sure when. Later, he invited the mothers to tour the state police office in Chihuahua City that same day.

Source: El Norte, April 17, 2002. Article by Rodrigo Ramírez.

Computer School in Juárez and Chihuahua City Under Investigation for Murder of Women

An article in the April 7, 2002 El Paso Times states that Chihuahua state police are investigating ECCO computer schools in connection with the murders of several young women in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City, according to David Diaz, state police spokesperson.

At least eight young women who were murdered or reported missing over the past few years attended, or had looked into attending, ECCO schools. ECCO has 36 branches including Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua City and other states

Octavio De La Torre Jimenez, director of the Cd. Juárez ECCO school, located on Avenida 16 de Septiembre, and Aaron Anibal Castañeda, director of the Chihuahua City ECCO, told the El Paso Times that there was no wrongdoing on the part of ECCO.

According to an article in El Diario, on April 6, 2002, at least two ECCO employees are among the suspects in the Chihuahua City killing of 17-year-old Paloma Escobar. Escobar was reported missing at the beginning of March, 2002.

The El Paso Times article went on to look at ECCO connections with murdered young women in Cd. Juárez.

Liliana Holguin de Santiago's body was found in 2000. She was 15 at the time of her death and attended ECCO. She also worked across the street from ECCO on a part-time basis.

Lilia Alejandra García, 17, attended ECCO. She was abducted on February 14, 2001. Police said she was held alive for approximately two days before she was murdered. She was abducted after leaving work.

Maria Acosta Ramírez, 19, worked at a Philips maquiladora and was last seen on April 25, 2001 leaving ECCO. Her body was one of eight found in a field in November, 2001.

Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, 15, had met with ECCO recruiters at her house a few days before her death. She was one of eight young women found in the cotton field in November, 2001.

Cd. Juárez women's rights activists have pointed out to Frontera NorteSur that Acosta's, Holguin's and Herrera's cases have already been closed because of the arrest of bus drivers Víctor Javier García Uribe and Gustavo González Meza. How this affects the investigation of ECCO employees is unknown at this time.

García and González have both repeatedly stated that they were tortured and coerced into confessing to the murder of Acosta, Holguin, Herrera and eight other women.

Earlier this year, El Diario reported that Oscar Maynez, the state police evidence expert, resigned from the state police because he was asked to fabricate evidence against the two men.

Source: El Paso Times, April 7, 2002. Article by Diana Washington Valdez.

Murders Go Unresolved in Cd. Juárez, State Evidence Expert Fired for Drug Links

In the first three months of 2002, there have been 85 homicides in Ciudad Juárez, 80% of which have not been solved by the Chihuahua State Police which is in charge of murder investigations, according to the Ciudad Juárez newspaper, El Diario. While the number of murders is higher than usual because of two families that perished in arson attacks, the apprehension rate for Chihuahua law enforcement is still low.

Grupo Zeus, which is responsible for solving drug-related murders, has not solved any of the 15 narco-related killings that have occurred so far this year, according to the El Diario article. Similarly, the State Police's Homicide Department has 70% of its cases still open.

The most effective state police group in closing murder cases has been the Office of the Special Investigator for Women's Murders. Five of nine cases have been solved by this group. However, the office has been under constant criticism since last year when it solved eleven rape murder cases by arresting two bus drivers who later said they were tortured into making false confessions.

In a separate story, the head of the state police evidence lab was fired in late March for not revealing that he had been fired from the same organization in 1991 after being arrested for drug trafficking and weapons violations. Héctor Enrique Infante Silva, the director of the evidence lab and service, was fired on March 27, 2002. On January 31, 2002, El Diario ran an article about Infante's 1991 arrest when he was caught with a one kilogram sample of marijuana, a stolen vehicle from El Paso, over US$5,000 and an Uzi submachine gun, among other things.

Source: El Diario, April 2, 2002. Article by Armando Rodríguez. El Diario, March 28, 2002.

Former INS Inspector Guilty in Marijuana Case

Raymond Monroe Allen, 40, a former INS inspector in El Paso plead guilty on Thursday, April 11 to charges of conspiracy to import marijuana and to charges of money laundering. Monroe now faces ten years to life in prison after admitting that while on duty he used cell phones, pagers and radios to help get drug shipments across El Paso's Bridge of the Americas.

An article in the El Paso times states that authorities believe that Allen and five others were responsible for bringing into the US approximately 164,000 pounds of marijuana since 1999.

Allen's wife, Maria Luisa Olivas Allen, pleaded guilty to one charge of money laundering in March. She could receive a sentence of up to twenty years in prison at her sentencing on May 17.

Also arrested in connection with the case were two Ciudad Juárez residents, Alfredo Silva Olivas and Arturo Laredo Molinar. They also plead guilty on April 11 and face penalties ranging from five years to life in prison.

Authorities are still looking for two more Cd. Juárez residents who were allegedly involved in the case, Martín Martínez Rueda and Jesus Acosta.

Source: El Paso Times, April 12, 2002. Article by Laura Cruz.

Gulf Cartel Active in Ten States, Penetrates Law Enforcement and Military

According to the Procuraduría General de la República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR), the Gulf Cartel, which is allegedly headed by Osiel Cárdenas, has expanded operations over the past few years and is now in ten Mexican states despite the recent arrests of cartel leaders.

Strongest in the eastern border state of Tamaulipas, the Gulf Cartel now has a presence in Nuevo León, Tabasco, San Luis Potosí, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Jalisco, Veracruz and Mexico City.

In Tamaulipas alone the cartel has approximately 600 drug houses from which it sells cocaine and heroine, according to the PGR.

The cartel maintains control of its territory and eludes apprehension by keeping what the PGR describes as a "small army" of informants inside of local, state and federal police organizations, including the PGR itself. Lower-ranking military officials also work as informants for the cartel. Informants receive up to US$3,000 per week depending on the quality of the information they give to the cartel.

Source: El Diario, March 30, 2002.