 |
Frontera
NorteSur |
|
|
|
October 29, 2003 The outstanding cases include one against the first suspect arrested in 1995, Abdel Latif Sharif Sharif, and the cases against the imprisoned members of the Los Rebeldes gang, arrested in 1996. Chihuahua authorities allege that, from jail, Sharif paid Los Rebeldes to rape and kill women in his style so that it would look as if the state had erred in arresting him. Other cases include those against four bus drivers known collectively as Los Toltecas. They were arrested in 1999 and police also linked their alleged crimes back to Sharif. Except for law enforcement, the Cd. Juárez public has little faith in the Sharif conspiracy theory woven by the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office. Also to be determined by the end of November is the fate of Javier García Uribe, who was arrested in late 2001 for the murder of eleven women, eight of whom were found in a cotton field in central Cd. Juárez in November 2001. García was arrested along with a fellow bus driver, Gustavo González Meza, who died in prison in early 2003 under suspicious circumstances after a hernia operation. Both García and González showed signs of police torture to the press
after their apprehension and claimed they were forced into signing false
confessions to the crimes. Mario César Escobedo Anaya, González's
defense lawyer, was killed under highly suspicious circumstances in a
police chase on Tuesday, February 5, 2002. For more on Escobedo's case go
to the following link and scroll down: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/feb02/today.html In an interview with the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Norte, Zapata said that state judges have had a double duty in the serial-killing cases, one is to administer justice, the other is to remedy any deficiencies in the cases presented by the prosecution when it is "subjectively" known that the defendant is guilty but the prosecution has had difficulties proving it. This statement by Zapata drew sharp criticism from the Cd. Juárez legal community. Lorenzo Villar Chavarría, president of the lawyers' bar in Cd. Juárez, said that if judges do anything to support the prosecution's cases, they should excuse themselves from the trials because they will have broken the law. He also stated that Zapata's statements show that the proceedings are not fair. More significantly, Villar noted that defendants will be able to appeal their cases to federal judges if state judges have helped the prosecution. Source: El Norte (Cd. Juárez), October 28 & 29, 2003. Articles by Edgar Prado, G.Salcido, M. Breach and R. Pérez.
October 20, 2003 Guadalupe Morfín Otero, a former president of Jalisco's human rights
commission and a long-time defender of women and women's issues, has been
named by the Fox administration as the Commissioner to Prevent and Punish
Violence against Women in Ciudad Juárez (Comisionada para Prevenir y
Sancionar la Violencia contra las Mujeres en Ciudad Juárez). "Because the crimes against women were not attended to in Ciudad Juárez--the place where the first symptoms were seen--a contagious malignancy was created and new killings have been noted among women in the capital of Chihuahua [Chihuahua City], León [Guanajuato] and Nogales [Sonora]," Morfín told reporters. Although Morfín says she plans to work collaboratively and on all fronts, she says that the hardest part of her duties will be examining the work of law enforcement officials in relation to the crimes. Morfín stated that if official inactivity, omissions, or complicity in the administrations of Chihuahua Governors Barrio or Martínez amount to a crime, she will investigate. Morfín is the niece of Efraín González Luna, the founder of
President Fox's political party, the Partido Acción Nacional or PAN
(National Action Party).
October 15, 2003 Five of the six Mexican border states are among that nation's 13 federal entities (12 states plus the Federal District) with the highest levels of deaths caused by drug overdoses, according to preliminary results from a 2001 study by the Sistema Epidemiológico y Estadístico de las Defunciones (Epidemiology and Statistics System for Deaths). Chihuahua and Baja California each lose between 35 and 49.9 residents per year to drug-related causes for each one million inhabitants. Sonora and Coahuila have mortality rates in the range of 4 to 34.9 deaths per year per one million inhabitants. Tamaulipas is among those states with the third highest drug-related mortality rates, 1 to 3.9 deaths per year. Only Nuevo León, which has a narrow border with the US, is among the 19 Mexican states with the lowest numbers of deaths from drug overdoses. Alcohol and tobacco related deaths were not included in the study, according to an article in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper, El Diario. Víctor Manuel Guízar Cruz, the national director of the Centros de Integración Juvenil (youth centers), believes that drug consumption and deaths are high on the border because drugs are brought to the region to be sent to the U.S. "Given its geographic location, Chihuahua is obligated to be a pass-through point for drugs," said Guízar. "For this reason it's a high-risk zone." Commenting on another study, Mexico's National Addiction Survey, Guízar noted that 14.2% of the Ciudad Juárez population between the ages of 12 and 65 have tried at least one illegal drug. According to the survey, which is done every five years, the national average for this age range is 5.3%. Guízar also stated that Chihuahua is among the ten Mexican states with the highest level of drug use. According to Guízar, cocaine is the most abused drug in Mexico although amphetamines are rapidly gaining in popularity. Treatment centers
October 10, 2003 According to a story in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Norte, a source inside the Attorney General's Office said the Special Taskforce for the Investigation of Women's Killings (Fiscalía Especial para la Investigación de Homicidios de Mujeres) received the 1993-1998 DNA samples from the Departamento de Servicios Periciales y de Medicina Forense (Department of Expert Services and Forensic Medicine) after the taskforce's creation in 1998. Now, El Norte's source says that no one knows where the tissue samples are. Valdez stated that if the missing DNA samples are not found filed away somewhere, the state will exhume the bodies to get more tissue. Valdez believes the samples may have been lost when the Special Taskforce moved between buildings approximately one year ago. Previously housed in the Cd. Juárez offices of the state attorney general, the taskforce moved to the state police academy also located in the city. El Norte also interviewed Valdez about the possibility that the Special Taskforce was considering exhuming the bodies of unidentified serial-killing victims that were buried in the city's common grave. Valdez stated that no decision had yet been made along these lines. Source: El Norte, October 10, 2003. Article by Salvador Castro.
October 3, 2003 From the small town of Basagota, located in Chihuahua's Sierra Tarahumara, in the county of Urique, come reports of repeated armed robberies carried out in broad daylight. Residents report that homes, shops and even the school have been sacked. "They arrive well armed, they kick on our doors and they come in our homes. They take money and everything else we have of value," says Alvaro Urías Domínguez, director of the town's elementary school. Urías himself has been robbed three times at night. Fortunately, no one in his family has been physically harmed. "They haven't thought of hurting us, they just take our blankets, clothes, pales, kitchenware, solar panels, personal things . . ." Urías said. According to the school director, the thieves are from out of town from areas like El Metate, La Uruacha and Paragómachi. He says that he does not recognize the men but that other people from Basagota do. "The problem is that no legal authorities have wanted to intervene against them, they've devastated the region, and there's no one to stop them." News of the Sierra crimes came from the Chihuahua City newspaper El
Heraldo. A September 29, 2003 article referred back to an earlier edition
of the paper that looked at similar problems in the region. On May 8, 1991, El Heraldo reported that, "a true wave of assaults
and robberies of poor communal stores in indigenous towns has been
unleashed over the past two months." The newspaper attributed the
robberies to former drug traffickers. The article also noted that Urique
county's 19 stores were robbed 37 times leaving many of them with no goods
or capital. On September 30, the day after the first recent article on the Sierra robberies, El Heraldo reported on comments about the illegal occurrences made by Jesús José Solís Silva, the Chihuahua attorney general. According to the newspaper, Solís states that there have been no complaints of robberies filed in the region for over a month. He attributes this to the fact that one of the region's most dangerous bandits was arrested a little over four weeks ago. He did admit that there are some thieves that operate between Sonora and Chihuahua in the Sierra. Because of their presence, Solís said that more law enforcement agents will soon be sent to the area to collect information and respond to news of the latest crimes. "We've always put together cases and arrested those responsible, but for the moment I don't have any knowledge of any other crimes that have occurred," Solís stated. Solís invites people from the region to file complaints with law enforcement in the area. Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua, September 29, 2003. Article by Froilan
Meza Rivera. September 19, 2003 Two of Chihuahua's most important business organizations are angry at the way non-governmental organizations portray the state and Ciudad Juárez in relation to the Ciudad Juárez serial rape-murders. Carlos Reyes López, local president of Coparmex, Mexico's largest business owner's association, told Chihuahua City's El Heraldo that groups trying to end the serial killings are magnifying the extent of the murders. He also said that attacks against Chihuahua are well aimed and represent a "dark interest." Reyes continued by saying , "there should be the ability to identify and sanction" groups that are purposefully tarnishing the image of Cd. Juárez and the state of Chihuahua. Reyes states that he will contact authorities to see what sorts of action can be taken toward the groups that allegedly malign Cd. Juárez. This will also include an inquiry into what legal actions can be taken against the organizations, he said. Reyes believes that although the murders are a disagreeable and delicate subject, other cities have higher crime rates and similar crimes, perhaps worse than Cd. Juárez. Regionally at least, Reyes' suggestion that other cities have similar crimes and crime rates would not appear to be true. The Pan American Health Organization's 2000 study, "Mortality Profiles of the Sister Communities of the U.S. Mexico Border," shows that the rate of female homicide per 100,000 women of all ages is approximately 4 times higher in Cd. Juárez than it is in El Paso and Tijuana. For girls and young women ages 5-14, Cd. Juárez has a homicide mortality rate 3 times that of El Paso and more than 12 times higher than Tijuana, according to the study. For young women 15-24 years old, the Cd. Juárez homicide mortality rate is 12 times that of El Paso and 3 times that of Tijuana. Víctor Silva Chacón, local president of the chamber of commerce, Canaco, said that organizations seeking to end the serial-killings are trying to mar the image of Cd. Juárez. He also stated that Chihuahua has hard-working, capable people and that it is unfair that only the negative side of Chihuahua is publicized. In the article, neither Reyes nor Silva identified by name the groups they were accusing. Source: El Heraldo (Chihuahua City), September 19, 2003.
September 11, 2003 According to the Chihuahua City newspaper El Heraldo, García's relatives confirmed that the young woman's glasses, shirt, and rings were found at the crime scene. However, García's mother, Hilda Medrano, wanted DNA testing to be performed. Later, police said that they took blood from members of García's family to perform the desired testing. Police officials are saying that García possibly died from stab wounds. This is based on the fact that dried blood was found at the scene of the crime. In previous serial-murder cases in the state, the cause of death has
frequently been strangulation or a broken neck. In García's case, there
was no sign of either, police told El Heraldo. The Chihuahua City-based group Justicia para Nuestras Hijas, an
organization that supports the families of serial-killing victims and the
disappeared, tried to accompany García's mother into the police building
when she went to identify the clothing found at the crime scene. However,
group members were not permitted to go inside with her, Justicia reported
in a press release. Four hours later, when Medrano left the building, she
was accompanied by police and members of Justicia could not speak with her
then either. While walking through the hills near Chihuahua City on Sunday afternoon, September 7, Omar Tabárez Anaya came across the body of an unidentified young woman. This is the third confirmed young woman found dead in the outskirts of Chihuahua City since May 28, 2003. Another body was rumored to have been found earlier in the summer but authorities would not confirm or deny the recovery of the fourth body. The Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario suggested that the body might be that of Diana Yazmín García Medrano who disappeared on May 27, 2003. García was wearing glasses at the time of her disappearance and glasses were found near the body that was discovered on Sunday. Clothing found at the scene also seemed to match what García was wearing at the time of her disappearance. In contrast to El Diario's conclusions, the Chihuahua City newspaper El Heraldo quoted a state police official as saying that the victim's body had had dental work done throughout her life. García's parents told El Heraldo that their daughter had never had any dental work. Given the degree of the body's decomposition, authorities estimate that the young woman died approximately three months ago. Related crimes What is allegedly the body of Viviana Rayas was found in the outskirts of Chihuahua City on May 28, 2003. Rayas had been missing since March 16 of this year. However, Raya's parents doubt that the body they were given was actually their daughter's. So far, law enforcement officials have not allowed the DNA testing that the family wants. Arrested for Raya's death was US citizen Cynthia Kiecker and her Mexican husband Ulises Perzábal. Kiecker and Perzábal say they were tortured into confessing to Raya's death. Also, two of the three government witnesses in the case admitted that they were tortured into framing Kiecker and Perzábal. Kiecker's trial is currently underway in Chihuahua City. On July 14, 2003, the body of Neyra Azucena Cervantes was found outside Chihuahua City. Azucena disappeared on May 13, 2003. Both her stepfather and his nephew say they were detained and tortured by police in relation to her death. The nephew, David Meza, who was in Chiapas at the time of Azucena's disappearance and was active in the search for her, has now been charged with her death. Sources: El Heraldo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), September 9, 2003. El Diario (Ciudad Juárez), September 9, 2003.
September 4, 2003 A few days earlier, an 84-year old man that had the disease died in El Paso. However, the exact cause of death in the case has not been determined as the man had other medical conditions besides West Nile virus. An eleven-year old boy who recently had a kidney transplant is also reporting symptoms of the disease. However, Magaña stated that his case had not yet been confirmed. From a public health standpoint, Magaña is worried about extracurricular activities at local schools. He says that mosquitoes are most active in the hours after school. "We've already put this situation before the schools," he said. So far in 2003, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, 21 people across the US have died from West Nile virus and an estimated 1,400 people have been infected. Two Ciudad Juárez residents have also been confirmed with the disease. One lives in the city center and the other in the Club Campestre neighborhood, a very wealthy part of Cd. Juárez. Both people work in El Paso and have been receiving treatment there. A third case in Cd. Juárez that seemed similar to West Nile virus was confirmed as Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Guillain-Barré is a disease of unknown origin that causes paralysis. However, Cd. Juárez health officials are examining the case closely to see if it is not perhaps West Nile virus. Source: El Diario (Ciudad Juárez), September 4, 2003. Article by María Clara Valencia. |