October 2, 2005
Chihuahua News from Frontera Norte Sur
Teacher Murders Tied to Organized Crime, Politics?
It was a fateful autumn stroll. School teacher Sonia Madrid Bojorquez and 19-year-old Maria Isabel Carrasco Vasquez were walking along a street in the Chihuahua City neighborhood of Nombre de Dios last Tuesday, when suddenly, a group of men in a Grand Marquis automobile pulled up to the two women. Shots rang out from the vehicle, striking Madrid three times. The 39-year-old educator died on the way to the hospital. Carrasco suffered a nervous attack but was physically uninjured.
A local official with Mexico 's National Education Workers Union (SNTE), Madrid was the latest in a string of educators in Chihuahua state to fall victim to murder or suspected foul play this year. Although no suspects have been publicly named in the Madrid slaying, Chihuahua SNTE leader Miguel Ramirez declared that organized crime was sending violent messages to the union. Ramirez did not elaborate. Union leaders called on law enforcement authorities to capture Madrid 's murderers and clarify the motive behind the killing.
The Madrid murder occurred within two days of planned visits to Chihuahua state of two political rivals who are involved in an all-out battle for control of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) : presidential hopeful Roberto Madrazo and Elba Esther Gordillo. As the largest teacher's union in Latin America , the 1.5 million- member SNTE is a vital part of the PRI's mass base. The longtime head of the SNTE, Gordillo recently resigned as the PRI's secretary general, threatening to split the party apart on the eve of the 2006 presidential and congressional elections.
Gordillo controls a potentially huge base of votes critical to the PRI's prospects in next year's elections, especially in a tight race between a Madrazo candidacy and front- runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. Close to President Vicente Fox and his wife Martha Sahagun, Gordillo's flirtations with the National Action Party have inflamed her opponents within the PRI. Gordillo also confronts long-running opposition from the left within her union. Gordillo's planned visit to Chihuahua City was cancelled after Madrid 's murder, but Madrazo's campaign jaunt in Chihuahua state went on as scheduled. One of two candidates for the PRI's presidential nomination, Madrazo met in Ciudad Juarez with campaign supporters headed by businessman Federico de la Vega. Madrazo's stop in the border city was marked by a demonstration by pro-Gordillo protestors from the SNTE, who charged the former Tabasco governor with being a "liar."
In Ciudad Juarez last month, another teacher and SNTE activist, Alma Delia Moreno Cadena, was abducted and murdered along with her 21-year-old daughter, Diana Ortega Moreno . The younger woman was also raped. Three men, reportedly affiliated with a private security firm, were quickly detained for the murders by Chihuahua law enforcement authorities, but the suspects made contradictory statements after their arrests. Moreno was the wife of a former mayor of San Buenaventura , Chihuahua , a town once reputed to be a recruiting ground for mafia gunmen. Also in Ciudad Juarez , a young teacher and SNTE member has been missing since last May. Edith Aranda Longorio disappeared after going to a job interview in downtown Juarez . Fitting the profile of previous serial killer victims, Aranda vanished in the same district where numerous other young women and girls went missing in recent years. Many were later found raped and murdered.
Sources: Norte, September 29 and 30, 2005. Articles by Nicolas Juarez Caraveo and Margarita Hernandez. Diario de Juarez, September 29, 2005. Article by Mauricio Rodriguez. lapolaka.com, September 28 and 29, 2005. Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces , New Mexico For a free electronic subscription email fnsnews@nmsu.edu