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March 26, 2002
Cut in Drug Flow Sparks Weekend Prison Riot in Juárez,
One Prisoner Dead
More than 500 inmates rioted at a prison near Ciudad Juárez
on Saturday, March 23. One prisoner, 35 year old Sergio Arturo
Madrid Herrera, was killed by a bullet fired by a law-enforcement
agent. The bullet struck Madrid in the back of the head, according
to state law enforcement officials who are investigating Madrid's
death.
In their attempt to quell the riot, 44 prisoners were sent
by prison officials from the Cd. Juárez-area prison, known
as the Cereso, to a similar facility about 250 miles south near
Chihuahua City.
The head of the prison, Luis Arturo Barragán González,
was fired from his job and is being investigated for links to
drug sales that take place in the facility, according to Guillermo
Dowell Delgado, a Cd. Juárez city official.
El Diario, a Cd. Juárez newspaper, attributed the riot
to the prison administration's decision to stop the flow of drugs
into the Cereso. According to the newspaper, inmates began rioting
after some of them started to experience symptoms of physical
withdrawal from drugs.
Sergio Gallardo, a family member of one of the inmates, said
that prisoners "have always had drugs both inside and outside,
I don't know why they would take them away now."
A mother of one of the inmates told El Diario that the riot
was the fault of prison officials because, "They get the
inmates addicted to drugs and then they take the crap away from
them."
A number of police units in anti-riot gear entered the prison
to restore order. Describing their tactics, one journalist wrote
that he saw a dozen prisoners with their hands handcuffed behind
them and face down on the floor. When the drugged inmates could
not stand up to form a line, one agent went up to all the prisoners
and sprayed their faces with tear gas and punched them before
leaving.
That the men had already received drugs is possible, according
to the words of one witness. Jovita
Morales was inside the prison visiting her brother when the riot
began. She said that the prisoners
started pulling down a fence to protest the lack of drugs.
Morales said that guards then began throwing little packets
of drugs to the prisoners. Once they
were high and sedated, she said, city police entered the Cereso
and began beating prisoners in front of the visitors. They were
stripped, handcuffed and beaten again, according to Morales.
Source: El Diario, March 24 & 25, 2002.
March 18, 2002
Taxi Driver Arrested in Durango for Murder of Young Woman: Lived
in Juárez, Police Investigate
Two Chihuahua state police agents from the office for the
investigation of women's murders have gone to Durango to look
for links between a sexually-related murder there and those in
Ciudad Juárez. The Mexican state of Durango is on the
southern border of Chihuahua.
Chihuahua officials were contacted last week by Durango law enforcement
when taxi driver Luis Ríos García was arrested
for the murder of Lorena Lira Barragán, age 18. According
to the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario, Ríos lived
for an unspecified amount of time in Cd. Juárez until
six months ago.
The Chihuahua investigators that have gone to Durango are
seeking to find out if Ríos might be responsible for some
of the nearly 80 rape murders that have taken place in Cd. Juárez
since 1993.
Ríos was arrested along with César Guillermo Rentería
for the murder of Lira who was last seen by friends leaving a
party and taking a taxi. Ríos and Rentería were
arrested three days after the killing and confessed to the crime,
according to El Diario.
Source: El Diario, March 17, 2002. Article by Roberto Ramos.
March 6, 2002
A Good Day for the Women of Ciudad Juárez
While the news surrounding the serial killing of women in
Ciudad Juárez has been negative for months, particularly
those stories dealing with the death of lawyer Mario César
Escobedo Anaya and the questionable murder cases against bus
drivers Víctor García Uribe and Gustavo González
Meza, there were some positive developments yesterday.
State Police add more agents
Liliana Herrera López, the new special investigator for
women's murders, announced on March 5 that her office has received
eight new agents and three new vehicles. This raises to twenty
the number of State Police agents assigned to the case. Herrera's
office also has five agents from the Ministerio Público.
Herrera has said that she has a special interest in forming a
relationship with NGOs that are working on women's issues. She
also stated that solving the serial killings will take a community
effort in which citizens will have to come forth to inform on
the perpetrators of these crimes.
Another rape avoided
According to the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario, a
sixteen-year old woman escaped what police thought was a sexual
attack. She used a whistle to draw attention and get help.
Police arrested José Antonio López Rodríguez,
23 years old, in relation to the case.
This was the third case in four days in which women saved
themselves from sexual attacks.
Over the past month, billboards, newspapers and other media have
been publicizing the Ponte Viva campaign which is a women's safety
effort that includes rape prevention advice.
Suspect arrested for murder of Casa Amiga receptionist
Ricardo Medina Acosta has been arrested for allegedly murdering
his wife, María Luisa Carsoli Berumen, in front of Cd.
Juárez's Casa Amiga Rape and Abuse Crisis Center where
she worked as a receptionist. Carsoli was stabbed to death outside
Casa Amiga on December 21, 2001.
Medina was arrested on Monday in Guadalajara while attempting
to commit a robbery along with another man, according to El Diario.
Elfego Bencomo López, the new assistant attorney general
for Northern Chihuahua, said that Medina was recognized in Guadalajara
because local law enforcement had publicized throughout the country
their arrest warrant for him.
Sources: El Diario, March 6, 2002. Articles by Roberto Robles
& Alejandro Quintero.
March 4, 2002
Personnel Changes in Chihuahua Attorney General's Office May
Affect Investigation of Juárez Serial Killing Cases
Less than a week after a new assistant attorney general was
appointed for the part of Chihuahua that includes Ciudad Juárez,
Zulema Bolívar García, the special investigator
for women's murders, resigned from her position on Friday, March
1, 2002.
Bolívar told the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario
that she resigned for personal reasons. Bolívar was special
investigator since late July, 2001. She will now teach full time
in the University of Ciudad Juárez School of Social Work,
she told the newspaper.
Suly Ponce Prieto, the previous special investigator for women's
murders, also resigned from her position as the general coordinator
for the Ministerio Público in Northern Chihuahua. El Diario
reported that it learned Ponce resigned because she was not named
to the position of assistant attorney general.
Elfego Bencomo López, the new assistant attorney general
for Northern Chihuahua, replaces José Manuel Ortega Aceves
who had been in the position since August 2001. Ortega is now
in another position with the Attorney General's Office.
Bencomo was identified by El Diario as a law professor and
the former director of the University of Ciudad Juárez
School of Law.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office told El Diario
that Bencomo never asked the women to resign and he had yet to
accept the women's resignations because he wants to speak with
them first. However, both women were apparently cleaning out
their offices on Friday, according to the newspaper.
No one has been named yet to replace either women.
Cd. Juárez women's organizations reacted to the news of
the resignation by criticizing both Bolívar and Ponce.
Esther Chávez Cano, the director of Casa Amiga, said that
a criminal investigation should be launched into Ponce's treatment
of victims' families when she was special investigator.
About Bolívar, Chávez said she was not experienced
enough for the job.
Marisela Ortiz Rivera, a member of "Return Our Daughters
Home," said that the investigation into the Cd. Juárez
women's murders has always lacked the will necessary to solve
the crimes.
In other news, Dinorah Gutiérrez Mata, a 24 year old Cd.
Juárez women who was reported missing by her family since
February 25, has since then contacted her family.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office said that
Gutiérrez bought a bus ticket for Guanajuato after a fight
with her boyfriend. However, family members say that that they
still do not know where she is at the present time.
Gutiérrez's case has opened up a debate in Cd. Juárez
about whether women should be fined if they run away from home
without telling anyone and a costly investigation is launched.
Source: El Diario, February 28 & March 2, 2002. Article by
Armando Rodríguez. El Diario, March 3, 2002. El Diario,
March 4, 2002. Article by Gabriela Minjáres.
February 24, 2002
Ciudad Juárez Field Sweep May Have Yielded New Evidence
in Serial Femicides
Combing for evidence the Ciudad Juárez cotton field
where her sister's body was discovered in November, 2001, Mayela
González said on Sunday, February 24 that she was angry
with the Chihuahua State Police for their weak investigation
into her sister's case and other similar cases.
Just minutes later, Mayela and her mother Josefina González
were shocked when two teenage boys found a plastic bag which
contained what both women identified as the tan overalls that
Claudia Ivette González was wearing the day she disappeared.
The women believe that the overalls were overlooked during the
State Police's previous investigation.
Between sobs, and flipping over the pants that lay on the
bank of the canal just feet from where her daughter's body was
discovered in November, Josefina González looked at what
appeared to be grass and dirt stains on the back of the pants
and said that Claudia Ivette's killer or killers must have had
her sitting on the ground somewhere. Speculating aloud about
how her daughter's last minutes might have been, Josefina began
sobbing harder and could not continue speaking.
Also present at the field sweep were Benita Monarrez, the mother
of Laura Berenice Ramos, and Gloria Solis Reyes, the mother of
Mayra Reyes.
The State Police claim that both Laura Berenice Ramos and
Gloria Solis Reyes were among the eight bodies found in the field
on November 6 & 7, 2001.
However, both women say they have refused to sign paperwork
to accept the bodies and are awaiting the results of DNA testing
currently being performed by the State Police. However, because
of their doubts about the much criticized investigation, both
women may not believe the results once they hear them, they say.
Benita Monarrez stated that despite an initial reluctance
to attend the field sweep, she is now angry and ready to work
harder than ever to resolve her daughter's case and those of
the other missing and murdered young women in Cd. Juárez.
Monarrez is also upset with the State Police, she says, because
they will not investigate who has been using her daughter's cell
phone or cell number since the time of her disappearance.
Gloria Solis Reyes, who believes that her daughter may have run
away from home to live in one of the small New Mexico towns between
El Paso and Las Cruces, said that she had never been to the field
before Sunday. Asked if it was hard to be there she said, "Hard?
No. Not with so many people. United it's better."
Supporting the families were a group of approximately 20 volunteers
from Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas and 20 members
of the Cd. Juárez search-and-rescue group Banda Civil.
Also found in the field were ripped or cut women's underwear,
at least four pairs of shoes, a dress, human hair, and a newspaper
article that had photos and descriptions of missing women from
Cd. Juárez.
After receiving a call from city police that were watching the
field sweep, State Police officers arrived at the scene and bagged
what could be new evidence in the cases.
One state police officer told the volunteer groups that they
had contaminated the evidence by touching it with their bare
hands. Volunteers responded by saying that if it had not been
for them, the evidence never would have been found.
Since 1993 nearly 300 women have been murdered in Cd. Juárez.
Of these murders, between 70 and 80 are considered to be sexually-related
murders and the work of one or more serial killers.
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