Note: This “Updated Document” is a follow up to the “Information Document on the Situation in Ciudad Juárez” that was given to protestors by the Mexican government at many of the 20+ Mexican consulates and embassies in the U.S. and around the world that were simultaneously protested on November 1, 2003. Henceforth this new publication from the Mexican government shall be referred to here as the “Updated Document”.
Link to Original Document.
OVERVIEW
The Mexican government’s “Updated Document” on the Ciudad Juárez sexual serial killings puts a perverse spin on what has been more than ten years of corruption and/or incompetence in the (non) investigation of the crimes. The bottom line: only one man has been sentenced for just one of the 100+ sexual murders that have occurred in the city since 1993, innocent people have been tortured into confessing to some of the crimes and remain imprisoned, and the members of Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua City NGOs working to stop and resolve the crimes have been threatened, beaten and harassed BY the Chihuahua government.
THE NUMBERS GAME
The Updated Document states, “As indicated in previous documents, between 1993 and 2003, Ciudad Juárez experienced the homicide of 328 women. In some of these, the victim disappeared for a length of time before being murdered. 92 of the homicides were perpetrated by violent sexual aggressors and the rest were motivated by varied causes…” (Page 1, paragraph 2).
AMIGOS RESPONDS: This number would appear to be THE OFFICIAL NUMBER OF THE DAY. In October 2002, Manuel Esparza Navarrete, the spokesperson for the Special Investigator of Crimes Against Women in Cd. Juárez (part of the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office) said that there had been just 67 killings since 1993. By comparison, NGOs and the press were putting the total at 93 at this time. Amnesty International currently puts the total number of sexual-related killings at 137 (http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/juarez/)—a figure that is substantially higher than the Mexican government’s 92. “
THE ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND GENDER CONTEXT OF CIUDAD JUAREZ”—this section runs from page 1 to page 3 of the Updated Document. At the end of this section, the following conclusion is made, “Hence the homicides in Ciudad Juárez are characterized by their mult-causal nature, result of a disintegrated and global society, in which the emergent problems like drug trafficking, drug consumption, migration and organized crime only augmented an existing culture of discrimination against women.” (page 3, paragraph 2)
AMIGOS RESPONDS: Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros all suffer drug trafficking, explosive growth due to immigration and a culture of discrimination against women. None of the these cities has experienced serial killings. The serial killings have persisted because of police corruption and/or incompetence. Also, approximately eight killings in Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua City have been linked to the ECCO computer school. No arrests have been made at either ECCO school and no investigation appears to have taken place in relation to the schools. This again suggests that the problem is linked to Chihuahua and Chihuahua law enforcement. Finally, a study by the Pan American Health Organization in 2000 found that the homicide rate for women ages 15 to 24 is FIVE times that of Tijuana and TEN times that of El Paso.
A DISMANTLED JUAREZ CARTEL? “One of the criminal organizations that operated in the City [sic] is the infamous Juarez Cartel, which dominated the scene during the nineties and whose primary interest was the smuggling of drugs in the United States. The dismantling of this criminal organization by the Mexican government had unwanted secondary effects . . .”(page 3, paragraph 6).
AMIGOS RESPONDS: All the major border cities (Tijuana, Mexicali, Nogales, Cd. Juárez, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros) have been gravely affected by drug trafficking. However, only Ciudad Juárez has seen sexual serial killings. Drug trafficking should not be equated with the inevitable abduction, rape, torture and murder of women. Indeed, unchecked drug trafficking is only another symptom of police corruption. It should also be noted as a point of clarification that the Juárez Cartel has not been dismantled. Instead, like the serial killers of women in Juárez, it also enjoys impunity. A report published by the U.S. Library of Congress in February 2003 states the following about the cartel:The Carrillo-Fuentes Organization (CFO), or Juárez Cartel, has eclipsed both the AFO and the Gulf cartel as the most powerful and geographically extensive Mexico-based polydrug trafficking organization. Despite the death of its leader, Amado Carrillo-Fuentes, in July 1997, the CFO has been able to expand its influence in drug smuggling operations throughout Mexico and the United States. According to media accounts of an intelligence report prepared by the Special Unit Against Organized Crime (Unidad Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada—UEDO), a branch of the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, the CFO employs approximately 3,300 persons in as many as 400 cells distributed across 17 Mexican states. The report’s findings suggest that the CFO may be the most resilient of the three largest Mexican drug trafficking networks; it has a core leadership of six individuals and a money laundering network headed by 26 regional managers located throughout Mexico.
“RESPONSES OF THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT TO EFFECTIVELY ADDRESS THE CURRENT SITUATION” Running across pages 3 and 4 of the Updated Document are a bulleted list of international organizations that Mexico says it has INVITED to evaluate the situation: UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, UN Fund for Women (UNIFEM), UN Office on Drugs and Crimes, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and others.
AMIGOS RESPONDS Mexico did not simply INVITE these organizations into Mexico. The groups WANTED to investigate the serial killings and other crimes. Mexico then decided to let them enter the country. If Mexico had dealt with the serial killings eight or nine years ago, international human rights organizations would not have come to Juárez. The presence of these groups should not be seen as Mexican commitment to human rights. Instead, they are evidence of a failed commitment to human rights. The Updated Document also failed to mention the reports’ damning results which include findings of official corruption, incompetence and the use of torture to create scapegoats for the crimes. Finally, the same respect that is afforded international human rights groups is denied Mexican organizations. Cd. Juárez lawyer and women’s advocate Gustavo de la Rosa was beaten severely in 2003, the Chihuahua City group Justicia para Nuestras Hijas has had legal actions taken against it by the Chihuahua Attorney General and members of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa in Cd. Juárez have been beaten and threatened with their lives. ICHIMU—The Chihuahua Institute for Women The Updated Document states that ICHIMU “has already initiated successful strategies like the Homicide Victims’ Family Assistance Program” (page 4, second paragraph from bottom). From what Amigos has witnessed, ICHIMU has been one of the Chihuahua government’s attempt to destroy NGOs by siphoning off members from other organizations, creating infighting among groups and impeding cooperation among groups. We ask the following of ICHIMU director Victoria Caraveo: 1. Do victims’ families receive monetary payments through the Homicide Victims’ Family Assistance Program? If so, can other families receive this funds? If so, how? Do family members have to go to ICHIMU or join ICHIMU to receive these payments? 2. Given that the Chihuahua Attorney General has made no progress in arresting the killers of the women of Cd. Juárez, given that dozens of its members have been accused of collusion with drug traffickers, kidnapping and murder, why would you facilitate or participate in a meeting with the AG to bring about investigations of the finances of groups composed of victims’ families members? The state AG has let down the families that you work with on every front and has fabricated scapegoats through torture. Why do you think they would do anything differently or better in this case? 3. Rather than participate in the V-Day events in which thousands of people marched through Cd. Juárez in February 2004 to demand an end to the crimes and their resolution, you left the city with the families you work with at ICHIMU. Why?
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COORDINATION AND LIASON TO PREVENT AND ERADICATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA (bottom page 4, top page 5)
AMIGOS RESPONDS The head of this commission, Guadalupe Morfín, seems to be doing a good job at raising awareness about the crimes. She has also been firm in stating that no one is above the law in these cases—including state and federal law enforcement officials. Her work seems good so far although two women have been murdered in early 2004 in ways that could fit the profile of sexual serial killings. Initial reports were that the Commission lacked resources such as offices and phones in Cd. Juárez. If true, we hope that this situation has been rectified.
FEDERAL PREVENTATIVE POLICE (PFP) AND NO DEAD WOMEN IN FOUR MONTHS The Updated Document states, “Numerous police squadrons of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) arrived in the Juarez municipality. Since their arrival, there have only been two dead women found, none in the last four months.” A few times per year, a few hundred federal cops will be deployed with much fanfare to border cities with severe drug problems like Cd. Juárez, Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana. Typically, these deployments are viewed as ineffective if not as human rights violations themselves as the PFP often set up random checkpoints to search people and vehicles for contraband, drugs and/or weapons. The Updated Document also seems to be a bit outdated. The body of Rebeca Contreras Mancha, a mother of three, was found on March 11, 2004 at the base of the Cristo Negro mountain. She had been strangled. Officials say she may have been sexually assaulted although no semen was found.
Photos from the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario of the investigation of the Rebeca Contreras murder. The Cristo Negro is an area where three or four bodies (officials are unclear on the number) were found in February 2003. Despite the fact that the place had been used as dump site previously, neither state nor federal law enforcement had staked out the area (as they did for example with the cotton field where eight bodies were found in November 2001).
Investigators have said that Contreras may have been involved in street-level drug sales. Six men have been detained for drug offenses and officials may link them to the death of Contreras. Another woman was found dead at a hotel in March 2004. Police say the suspect in the case was seen trying to put her body in his car. The prosecution of the case is problematic however. The alleged killer was identified as a maquiladora worker (someone that would earn about $4-$8/day maximum). How would someone at this income level have enough money to own a car, buy gas, rent a hotel room, go out drinking, and buy cocaine? Given past incidents in which people were allegedly framed in serial killing cases, Amigos has doubts about the guilt of this suspect. A number of sets of human remains have been found around Ciudad Juárez since February 2004. Initial statements are that the bodies were males but Amigos has doubts here too as officials appear to want to keep feminicides off the books.
JOINT AGENCY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE HOMICIDE OF WOMEN IN JUAREZ (top page 6) The Updated Document states, “The agency is integrated by officers from the Federal Ministry of Justice who work side by side with their state counterparts, strengthening their technical expertise.”
AMIGOS RESPONDS: At a public event in the US in 2002, Oscar Maynez, the former forensic expert for the Chihuahua State Police (who allegedly resigned because he refused to plant evidence on the two men arrested in connection to the eight bodies found in November 2001), said that the Chihuahua police are well enough trained to solve the crimes IF THEY CARED TO DO SO. Maynez went on to state that there had NEVER BEEN A POLICE INVESTIGATION INTO THE KILLINGS, INSTEAD THERE HAD ONLY BEEN POLITICAL ARRESTS.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERT SPECIALIZING IN SKULL RECONSTRUCTION (page 6, bullet #2) The Updated Document states, “An international expert specializing in skull reconstruction was hired in order to facilitate the identification of some of the bodies found.”
AMIGOS RESPONDS: Reaction to this “expert” was unanimous across Cd. Juárez: 1. Facial reconstruction from skull remains is art plus science. The expert in this case, a Mr. Bender, certainly lacked the art if not the science too. The faces he came up with were considered to look too indigenous and none of the faces looked like those of known victims who are all more European looking. 2. Even more problematic is that state officials use pseudoscience like this in place of DNA. DNA evidence and testing has been notoriously botched by investigators. Recently, when the state taskforce looking into the feminicides moved offices (to the Police Academy which has been allegedly used as a site for torture of suspects in the past) it lost years worth of DNA samples.
TRAINING BY THE FBI (page 6, bullet 6)
AMIGOS RESPONDS: Juárez victims’ families want the FBI to run their own investigation into the killings since the families have NO FAITH IN MEXICAN INVESTIGATORS. Mexico will not allow this but has permitted training of state investigators. Although people like former-forensic chief Maynez do not believe such training is necessary for Mexico to solve the killings, the activist community continues to support FBI involvement and relationship building with Mexican officials in the hopes that Mexico will professionalize and cleanup its law enforcement and that the FBI could gain valuable information throught its contacts. LOPEZ URBINA: THE NEW FEDERAL INVESTIGATOR The Mexican groups that Amigos supports are glad that President Fox has sent a federal investigator with a staff of 50 people. We hope to hear soon that her investigation has been successful in investigating the crimes. Specifically, it is hoped that she will investigate the many leads which have been suggested by journalists that have had to become the defacto investigators into the killings. We trust that she will do better than a previous federal team to Cd. Juárez. In that instance, two working-class men were detained by federal law enforcement officials in April 2003. They, and most horribly, their families, were held at a state law-enforcement facility where the men say they were tortured into confessing to being part of an organ-trafficking ring (that apparently only wanted organs from young women). Interesting to note was that the men were charged with killing women that the Chihuahua AG had already attributed to two other men (both of whom allege they were tortured and one of whom died in jail under suspicious circumstances (and one of whose lawyer was shot dead by state police after a car chase in 2002—no charges were filed against the police)). According to statements made to the Cd. Juárez press by Carlos Gastón Ramírez García, the president of the Chihuahua Transplant Council, the idea of organ trafficking in relation to the sexual serial murders is “unbelievable and absurd.” Per Ramírez, criminals would not have access to the equipment, facilities and medical experts needed to execute such a crime. Ramírez noted that at a minimum, a successful transplant needs a specialized surgeon, a transplant specialist, a team of at least ten other medical specialists, sophisticated equipment, compatibility studies from the donor and the receiver, a blood bank and intensive care. Later, the two men arrested by the federal agents were released—which at least shows some integrity on the part of the feds. The Chihuahua state government appears unable to admit that it has done wrong and keeps Víctor García Uribe, David Meza, Ulises Perzabal and U.S. citizen Cynthia Kiecker in jail despite clear evidence that their “confessions” were fabricated through the use of torture. We should also note that the activist community composed of victims’ family members works hand in hand with other victims: the family members of García, Meza, Perzabal and Kiecker. Our struggle for justice will not be over until there is justice for these four people and others that have been arrested previously in connection to the feminicides. CONCLUSION The Updated Document ends with a rather cryptic phrase, “Sadly, it must also be acknowledged that this is also a political case, around which circle many private interests that hinder its solution.” AMIGOS RESPONDS: From the point of view of the Mexican family groups, this is certainly NOT a political case. The killings were first noticed under a PAN governor and have continued under a PRI governor. No one among the Mexican activist groups seems interested in blaming one political party or another. More perplexing is the notion that “many private interests” “hinder” the solution to the crimes.
AMIGOS asks, “what private interests” are so strong that combined and separate state and federal investigations can not take them on?
CLOSING THOUGHTS
While there is much more that could be said in response to the Updated Document and this is only a quick reply to it, it should be apparent that the document is simply a distortion of the truth for the sake of public relations. We suggest that Mexico follow up on recent leads in old and new cases and resolve the crimes, take effective measures to make Cd. Juárez safe, release tortured scapegoats and look at other specific demands made by the victims’ families. Advances along these lines would make for a story that the government could tell proudly and truthfully.
Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez
Ni Una Más!