A Response to the Mexican Government’s “Information Document on the Situation in Ciudad Juárez” by Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez
Note: This “Information Document” was given to protestors by the Mexican staff of over 20 Mexican consulates and embassies in the U.S. and worldwide during simultaneous protest events at these facilities on November 1, 2003. Henceforth the document shall be referred to here as the “Information Document”.
Overview
The Mexican government’s information document on the Ciudad Juárez sexual serial killings puts a perverse spin on what has been more than a decade of corruption and/or incompetence in the (non) investigation of the crimes. The fact of the matter is that only one man has been sentenced for only 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.
Paragraph 1—A Long History of Dis-/Mis-information on Numbers
The Information Document states, “…the number of murders comes to 326, 72% of which would be the result of intra-family family and common violence. The remaining 28% would be the results of acts of grave sexual violence.”
Twenty-eight percent of 326 would indicate that there have been 91.28 sexual slayings of women in Cd. Juárez since 1993. What quickly jumps to mind here is, what is 0.28 of a raped and murdered victim?
Second, this number, according to the Information Document, is provided by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Chihuahua and would appear to be THE NUMBER OF THE DAY.
At a time when all of the outside studies have found at least 100+ cases of sexual murders in Cd. Juárez, the Chihuahua AG has reported numbers ranging from the 40s to the 90s. SUCH NUMBER GAMES ARE UNACCEPTABLE and cast doubt on any of what the government states.
Paragraph 2
The Information Document states, “The disappearance and murders of women in Ciudad Juárez are a veritable attack against the Rule of Law and cannot be ignored nor go unpunished.”
While we appreciate this noble-sounding language, the disappearance and murder of over 100 “women” HAVE BEEN IGNORED ENOUGH FOR OVER A DECADE THAT ALL BUT ONE HAVE GONE UNPUNISHED (and that case is under appeal and could be overturned like the one prior sentence). We write “women” because some of the rape-torture-murder victims have been under the age of 14.
We also question whether there is rule of law in a city where approximately 20 state and city law enforcement agents and commanders were related to drug-cartel executions in early 2004.
Paragraph 3
The Information Document states “…a series of actions have been undertaken at municipal, state and federal levels that are beginning to produce results. Investigations into these crimes do not discard any possibility and are being conducted along all possible lines ranging from isolated crimes to patterns of criminal behavior.”
We ask, what results have been produced? Ten years into these killings and only one person (Egyptian citizen Abdel Latif Sharif Sharif) has been sentenced for one killing—and this sentence is under appeal.
Furthermore, the bodies of two young women have been found dead in Cd. Juárez in 2004—one at a hotel and one in the area of Cristo Negro (where previous bodies were found in 2003) which apparently was not under the surveillance of law enforcement.
We would agree that, yes, the investigations certainly seem not to have discarded any theories—not even the absurd ones like organ trafficking.
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 specialist 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.
Despite this, two working-class men were detained by federal law enforcement officials in April 2003. They, and strangely, 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 attractive 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 lawyers was shot dead by state police after a car chase in 2002—no charges were filed against the police)).
Later, the two men arrested by the federal agents were released—which at least shows some integrity on their part. 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 generally works hand in hand with other victims: the family members of García, Meza, Perzabal and Kiecker.
Paragraph 4—Mexico Open to International Human Rights Groups but Threatens and Beats Mexican Human Rights Workers
The Information Document states, “Mexico is open to international scrutiny and cooperates with human rights organs [sic] in order to solve complaints filed.”
We applaud Mexico for permitting international scrutiny. We also note that nearly one-third of the Information Document consists of short summaries of the access that Mexico gave to the following groups: Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and Amnesty International.
What the Information Document did not note was that these groups only came to Juárez after nearly a decade of no results in prosecuting and ending the crimes. The document also failed to mention the reports’ damning findings.
It also seems sick to use these organizations’ names and visits to make it look like Mexico has acted sufficiently in regards to the 100+ rape murders that Ciudad Juárez has experienced.
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 state AG and members of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa in Cd. Juárez have been beaten and threatened with their lives.
Part II. Context
Part II of the Information Document is one paragraph that simply states the city’s size and location and notes that it is ripe for the establishment of criminal organizations.
If this is true, Mexico has all the more work and explaining to do. However, we point out that no other border city has experienced femicides at the rate of Cd. Juárez. This underscores the fact that these are not just or only development-related murders but are gender crimes in which people are targeted because of their sex.
Part III. Actions on the Part of the Mexican Government
The two paragraph introduction to this section explains that murder is a state crime unless organized crime is presumably involved. Well, for ten years apparently Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) did not believe so.
We believe that it has been the attention brought to the killings by Mexican and international activist groups and human rights organizations that have forced Mexico to finally acknowledge the possibility of organized crime.
Note that in even as recently as one-year ago, in April 2003, Carlos Javier Vega Memije, an assistant attorney general with PGR, said that the PGR would not investigate the Cd. Juárez serial killings because there was no evidence of three or more people organizing the murders. Vega concluded this despite the appearance of eight bodies in one field and reports of local police involvement in the crimes.
Amigos currently notes the presence of two new federal law enforcement initiatives in Cd. Juárez. One is led by Guadalupe Morfín (to stop crimes against women) and the other by María López Urbina (to investigate and prosecute the past crimes against women). We are encouraged by their presence and hope to see results within the year.
Other Items Mentioned in the Information Document
The FBI
Mexico has allowed the FBI to train its law-enforcement personnel that are related to the investigation of the Cd. Juárez crimes. At times it has used this relationship to suggest that even the FBI cannot solve the Cd. Juárez murders. This is gross and distorts reality—the FBI is not investigating the murders.
Indeed, a few years back, when the Mexican press revealed that the FBI had revealed that an FBI informant in Cd. Juárez saw a young woman being dragged screaming and fighting from the Cd. Juárez apartment of a suspected drug trafficker, Mexico apparently failed to act on this information and no arrest was made.
Amigos continues to support the demands of the victims’ families that the FBI be allowed to conduct its own investigation of the sexual serial killings. After a decade of failed Mexican attempts to investigate and stop the crimes, perhaps Mexico should give someone else a chance.
ICHIMU—The Chihuahua Institute for Women
The Information Document states that ICHIMU was created in 2002 and since then has “promoted dissemination of women’s rights and has carried out actions aimed at raising public awareness regarding the Cd. Juárez murders…”.
From what Amigos has witnessed, ICHIMU has been one of the Chihuahua government’s attempt to destroy NGOs by siphoning off members, creating infighting among groups and impeding cooperation among groups.
Of ICHIMU director Victoria Caraveo we ask the following:
1. Do victims’ families working with ICHIMU receive payments? If so, can other families receive this funds? If so, how? Do family members have to go to ICHIMU to receive the money?
2. Given that the state AG has only resolved perhaps one of the sexual killing cases, given that dozens of its members have been accused of collusion with drug traffickers, why would you facilitate or participate in a meeting with the state AG to bring about investigations of the groups composed of victims’ families members?
The state AG has let down this movement on every front and has fabricated scapegoats and evidence. 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 and end to the crimes and their resolution, you left the city with the families you work with at ICHIMU. Why?
While there is much more that could be said in response to Mexico’s Information 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 truthfully in a straightforward way.
Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez
Ni Una Más!