Frontera NorteSur, October 1999

On August 18 of this year, security officials from three levels of the government--federal, state and municipal--joined forces to fight crimes by implementing "retenes" or random checkpoints in five areas of Cd. Juárez targeted because of their reputation for heavy criminal activity. A controversy continues to ensue over the safety, effectiveness and constitutionality of these checkpoints.

According to Assistant State Attorney General of Chihuahua, Alejandro Astudillo, "This effort would strengthen a permanent campaign to disarm criminals and stop auto theft." Stopping homicide was another major objective of this preventative force that originally included more than 100 agents of the three police forces.

According to the state attorney general's office, there have been 96 murders so far this year in Cd. Juárez, of these 25 have been solved, and 71 have been sent to the office of criminal investigation where alleged assassins have been identified. Fifty of the crimes were committed with guns, 10 with knives, 18 by assaults, and 18 by other causes including strangulation, burning, overdoses and other assaults. It was these type of statistics that reinforced the preventive effort of the three levels of government.

But these preventative policing activities were met with almost immediate protest when on August 24 the Academy of the Human Civil Rights (ADHAC), in response to complaints they had received, denounced the authorities that were a part of the checkpoints saying they were unconstitutional.

Eustacio Gutiérrez Corona, representative of the human rights group, acknowledges the beneficial motive of these actions. However, it was the constitutionality that he questioned. "We have not come to tell them they are doing something illegal, we have come to demand that they suspend this action for the same reason we created the constitution and the secondary laws, to stop all arbitrary acts that infringe upon the rights of the citizens."

Additionally, Gutiérrez noted that the checkpoints do not, even in the slightest, deter or stop the criminal activity that Cd. Juárez suffers from.

Then, on August 26, Salvador Urbina, director of the Chihuahuan Institute of Criminology, announced that two of the first requests for protection against the police checkpoints had been granted, one with a provisional suspension of an officer. The message, according to Urbina, is that the police should not be doing body or vehicle searches in this manner.

Article 16 of the Mexican Constitution is the law currently under scrutiny as it specifies that no person and no person's possessions can be "molestado" or harassed without due process. Also, it was noted by local attorneys that in 1995 similar protections were allowed city residents against inspection stations that were in place in November of that year.

However, the state attorney general asked that these actions be supported by the citizens. "We ask for the support of the Juárez community because we must carry out some degree of harassment," Arturo González Rascón said in defense of the checkpoints.

He explained that three levels of government must be involved, and the random checkpoints must take place because the city has too many armed people and so much crime that the private life of citizens is inhibited, also, according to Rascón, there is too much drug trafficking. "We don't want to harass any common citizens, however in order to dissuade or capture criminals, we need the support of the community in the methods we have chosen to use."

The governor of the state of Chihuahua, Patricio Martínez, agreed and said, "We have to do it." He said that the checkpoints are actually a response to the demands of the people, and that most people are satisfied with the effort. He promised that no harm or violence would come to citizens because of these checkpoints.

However, at the same time authorities were calling for citizens' support of the inspection stations, and promising their safety, harm did come to innocent citizens, allegedly due to checkpoints, in two separate incidents.

On August 27, Crystal Cabadie, 24, a U.S. citizen originally from New Mexico and her husband Lance Gish, 28, also from theU.S., accused the police of robbing them and of causing the abortion of Cabadie's two month old fetus while conducting a search.

The couple from New Mexico was traveling to Guadalajara to visit two friends and were pulled over at a checkpoint on August 25. They allowed the search of the car, and of Gish's body, and Cabadie's but during her search, she was allegedly mishandled, casuing her to miscarry her baby. Gish said the investigation took a few hours and the agents believed he was trafficking drugs.

Rascón personally assured the couple that the matter would be looked into immediately, and again stated that the checkpoints are not intended to hurt anyone, but to deter crimes in a city that is plagued with criminal activity.The two female officers that allegedly molested Cabadie were identified and found and investigations were to continue.

Rascón's office received test results later indicating that the blood Cabadie lost during the search was menstrual and not from a miscarriage, which according to the attorney general's office is one of several inconsistencies in the couple's story. While she said she did not know she was pregnant, Gish said she was three months pregnant. Also, it was noted that the couple was stopped and searched on Wednesday the 25, however waited to file a report until Friday the 27 of August.

On that same Friday, four young people drowned. They fled from a checkpoint, and the driver allegedly lost control of the car which fell into an irrigation ditch near two of the youth's homes. Early reports suggested that the foursome was drinking beer and therefore avoided the checkpoint. Their speeding away and reckless driving caused the police to chase them.

Early versions of the story also indicated that a rescue team did not appear on the scene until two hours after the accident, however days later the police proved through video tape that they were involved in a rescue within minutes of the accident.

The victims included Juan de Dis Arámbula, 22, Juan Enrique Cobos Holguín, 19, Georgina Amador Lucio, 14 and Claudia Ivonne Escobedo Saavedra, 17. Families of the young people are accusing the police of homicide in the deaths of their children.

"I demand punishment for the agents involved in the death of my brother," said María Esther Flores Cobos. They were escaping not because they did something wrong but because they were afraid." Fear of the checkpoints is a complaint commonly reported.

An investigation has ensued and both the attorney general and the Cd. Juárez chief of police, Javier Benavidez, promised that upon discovery of any wrong doing on the parts of their agents the appropriate legal actions would be taken immediately.

The attorney general was once again prompted to defend the checkpoints and declared that these are isolated incidents and that they are already seeing a drop in crime as a result of the efforts the preventative police are making.

By August 30 officials from all three levels of the government had agreed to continue the inspections, however they were to be modified. The attorney general's office would not initially publicize the modifications for fear it would have a negative effect on their ability to catch criminals at the checkpoints if they gave away too much information. But by September 3, word was out that the physical searches would be reduced and completely eliminated for female suspects at the checkpoints. The number of officers assisting at each stop would be reduced also.

At this meeting González Rascón blamed the media for the bad image the inspections had received. "Particularly in Cd. Juárez we have encountered journalistic rumors that have not occurred in other cities." He referred in part to the story that the young passengers were being chased by police who basically drove them into the ditch.

Rascón also indicated that the rumors may be orchestrated by criminals and drug traffickers in an effort to stop the inspections which are successfully deterring their crimes. However, Guillermo Dowell Delgado, director of the local PRI, said "I am not a drug trafficker and don't have clients that are drug traffickers or linked to drug traffickers, and I still believe that the inspections are unconstitutional."

Leaders of both the PAN and PRD parties echoed these sentiments. Efrén Gutiérrez Casas, PRD president, said the inspections are "an inefficient attempt at combating crime." Ramón Aguila Armendáriz, local leader of the PAN, demanded that the attorney general, whose words are "irresponsible," denounce the drug traffickers he blames.

Jaime Flores Castañeda from the State Commission of Human Rights (CEDH) asserted again that the 16th amendment of the constitution was being violated. Salvador Urbina, director of the Institute of Criminology, said that the attorney general must legally clarify his opinions.

On September 2 a witness, Lazaro Ochoa, stepped forward to say that he did see a number of vehicles chasing the blue Cadillac that the group was driving and that they chased them right to the edge of the ditch. Additionally, a report came out from the attorney general's office saying that there was alcohol present in the driver's body and unopened containers of beer in the car.

The Catholic church also made a statement against the inspections after the youths' death. Bishop of Cd. Juárez, Renato Ascencio León said that if the checkpoints are a way of stopping violence then the authorities should not be using violence, to maintain the checkpoints.

Sources: El Diario, El Norte de la Cd. Juárez