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June 25, 2004 US Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, introduced a resolution to the United States Senate on June 24, 2004 that "condemns the abduction and murder of young women in Ciudad Juárez and the city of Chihuahua", expresses condolences to the victims' families, and "expresses the solidarity of the people of the United States with the people of Mexico in the face of these tragic and senseless acts." According to Bingaman's office, the proposed resolution is cosponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Texas Republican, and Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat. US Representative Hilda Solis, a California Democrat, introduced a similarly worded resolution in the House last year. “In 1993, the bodies of women began appearing in the deserts outside the city of Juarez, Mexico, marking the beginning of a horrendous epidemic that has plagued the United States-Mexico border region for more then 10 years. Since then, more than 370 women have been killed,” Bingaman said. “Unfortunately, these murders have continued into this year. Nearly all of the cases remain unsolved. In fact, many of the bodies of victims have yet to be positively identified. One can only imagine how much pain and suffering this has caused the families and friends of these young women. I want to make sure that these deaths are never forgotten, and that the governments on both sides of the border continue to give this issue the attention that it so rightly deserves,” he added. The resolution also "recognizes the courageous struggle of the victims’ families in seeking justice for the victims", and "urges the President and Secretary of State to continue to express support for the efforts of the victims’ families to seek justice for the victims, to express concern relating to the continued harassment of these families and the human rights defenders with which they work." The establishment of a DNA database to help families identify their daughters is also called for in the resolution. Mexican Government Reverses Statements Made by President Fox to Senator Coleman On Friday, June 18, 2004, while in Minnesota on a trade mission, Mexican President Vicente Fox told US Senator Norm Coleman that murder charges would most likely be dropped against Cynthia Kiecker, a US citizen imprisoned in Chihuahua City for allegedly murdering 16-year old Viviana Rayas. Kiecker, a Minnesotan, and her Mexican husband Ulises Perzábal, say that they were tortured by Chihuahua state police into confessing to killing Rayas in 2003. Kiecker's claim of torture have been supported by the U.S. Consulate in Cd. Juárez and people that originally accused the couple of killing the young woman later recanted their testimonies saying that they were tortured into framing them. Now, less than a week after Fox's visit, the Mexican Embassy in Washington DC said that charges will continue against Kiecker. What should have been relayed from Fox to Coleman was that it was the police officers accused of torturing the couple that will most likely not be prosecuted. In a letter to the Mexican government after its reversal, Coleman wrote "In particular, you, Undersecretary Gutierrez, and Ambassador Icaza assured me that the state had decided not to prosecute the Kiecker case and that the only remaining obstacle to her release was the right of the victim's family to pursue a civil case." "Clearly, you can appreciate the outrage of the Kiecker family and all Minnesotans, including this United States senator," he added. "Mr. President, while you were in my home state of Minnesota, you made a firm commitment to me and the people of Minnesota that this case would not be prosecuted, and it is my most sincere hope that Mexico will stand by your commitment." Carol Kiecker, mother of Cynthia, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that "I'm having a fit, needless to say. I don't think Fox made a mistake; how could he misunderstand a memo like that? This is not OK to have the president of Mexico come to Minnesota and say things in order to get trade agreements, then say, 'Oops, I made a mistake.' " The case against Kiecker and Perzábal continues partly because a recent state DNA test came back which confirms that the body allegedly linked to the couple is that of Viviana Rayas. However, neither the Rayas family nor the defense trusts the governments result. New tests could mean delays in the ongoing trial of Kiecker and Perzábal. Sources: June 17, 2004 Chihuahua environmental and community activists Isidro Baldenegro and Hermenegildo Rivas could be set free on or before Friday, June 17, 2004. The Tarahumara environmentalists were arrested on March 29, 2003. They say that Chihuahua state police broke into the their homes without search warrants and planted guns and marijuana so that they could arrest them. Eye witnesses from their community, Coloradas de la Virgen, confirm the raid on the men's homes. Before Baldenegro and Rivas can be freed, Mexico's Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha must sign off on the recommendation of a federal court located in Chihuahua. Once Macedo gives his approval, the federal court will then issue an order to free the men. At the same time the legal process against Baldenegro and Rivas is ending, the state police officers charged with framing the men are going through the legal system. However, just weeks after the investigation into these men's actions began, Chihuahua's Attorney General Jesús Antonio Piñón Jiménez has already asked federal officials to reach a finding such that they will not prosecute the Chihuahua officers. Free but Safe? Although Baldenegro and Rivas are happy to be just hours away from being able to return to their families and community, Baldenegro has asked the federal Attorney General's Office to protect not just him but his town of Coloradas de la Virgen. Baldenegro worries that the community may suffer reprisals after he and Rivas are freed from prison. In a letter to Attorney General Macedo, Baldenegro requested an increased police or army present in his community. Out of all the state and federal organizations that perform security functions in Mexico the army is considered by many Mexicans to be the most trustworthy and least corrupt. This might explain why Baldenegro requested the presence of the army. Why he would want an increased police presence is difficult to understand unless he was seeking protection solely from federal police forces and not state police forces (which allegedly planted evidence to frame him and Rivas). Another possibility is that Coloradas de la Virgen community members fear Artemio Fontes Lugo and his associates even more than they do law enforcement. For decades Fontes and his associates have been investigated for and accused of drug offenses, murder and other crimes. A series of reports and news stories available at the
following link examine the history of the Fontes in the Sierra Tarahumara:
http://www.sierramadrealliance.org/coloradas/proceso.shtml Sources: The illegal conversion of grassland to farmland and the drilling of unauthorized wells is threatening ecosystems and communities in Northern Chihuahua, according to an article in the Chihuahua City newspaper El Heraldo. More than 300 species of animals live in the region and some may be threatened by increased development including the Golden Eagle, the Harris Hawk, the Red Tail Hawk, the Pronghorn Antelope and the Prairie Dog. The Heraldo article pointed to two specific areas that are seeing the plowing of their prairies. One area is in the northwestern corner of Chihuahua, near the cities of Janos and Ascensión. The other area is between Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City, in the area around El Sueco. Mennonite agricultural communities in these regions are said to be responsible for most of the unauthorized farming. José Mario Sánchez, the head of the Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente (Federal Environmental Protection Office, Profepa) in Chihuahua, said that before grasslands are plowed into farmland another federal environmental agency, Semarnat, must perform an impact study and then give a favorable recommendation to the government of Chihuahua. At that point Chihuahua environment officials must approve or deny the permit. Sánchez says that this process is not being followed in the above mentioned regions. Not only are animals losing habitat with the creation of new agricultural fields but those working the land are burning it before they plant. Although this practice is prohibited, El Heraldo indicates that the grass is set aflame so that it is harder to detect the conversion. Due to the slight rainfall the region receives, wells are necessary to irrigate new fields. However, there is currently a ban on well drilling in the areas that are experiencing increased farming. Too much drilling could affect water supply to existing wells in the area, El Heraldo noted. Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), June 11, 2004. Article by Juan Francisco Garay Ruiz. June 7, 2004 In a strange turn of events, after a new federal investigation turned up no evidence of serial killings among the first 50 women's murders it examined in Ciudad Juárez, it is now Chihuahua state law enforcement that is arguing for a pattern of serial murders in the border city. In the past, while federal officials were considering their possible involvement in Cd. Juárez, it was the state that was attempting to push the number of deaths downward. On Thursday, June 3, 2004, the federal Special Investigator of Crimes Related to Women's Homicides, María López Urbina, gave her first major report to an audience that included Mexican President Vicente Fox and federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha. According to López, "...in this first group of analyzed cases there are no indicators of serial crimes among them." López and her team examined 50 of 307 femicides that have occurred in Cd. Juárez since 1993. An AP article indicated that these cases were the first examined because they were the first received by federal investigators from the state of Chihuahua. López repeatedly dodged questions about whether any of the 50 cases were from among the more than 100 which fit a serial pattern. Because details of which killings were examined by federal officials were not discussed, it is unknown whether any of the cases related to any of the eight bodies found in a cotton field in Cd. Juárez in November 2001 were examined. Many of these cases are related to the ECCO computer school and there are other cases related to this same business in Chihuahua City (although the federal investigation is not looking into killings there). However, these cases would appear to fit a serial profile. Manuel Esparza Navarrete, who for years has been the spokesperson for Chihuahua's special investigation into the killings and is now the spokesperson for the combined state-federal investigation, said that law enforcement has established the presence of "serial killers in Ciudad Juárez." Strangely, in 2002, Esparza himself minimized the number of killings. At a time when the press, NGOs and the head of Chihuahua's Supreme Court were saying that there had been 93 femicides that fit the profile of abduction, rape and murder, Esparza said that there had been only 67. To see more on this go to http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/feb03/today.html. State Law Enforcement Investigated Another finding from López Urbina's report is that 81 of 167 Chihuahua law enforcement officials and agents that were or are currently involved in the investigation of women's murders in Cd. Juárez are now under investigation themselves. They are being investigated for alleged negligence in investigating the crimes. López said she would not name any of the 81 people because they are currently being investigated by Chihuahua law enforcement. She did however state that seven state lead investigators are among those she indicated. According to the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario, there have only been seven lead investigators since the office was created in 1998. Families Barred From Attending Meeting, Activists Followed When families of some of the Cd. Juárez victims went to Mexico City and tried to enter López Urbina's press conference they were told they were not on the list of those invited and were not permitted to enter the function, according to an article in El Diario. Only Ramona Morales, the mother of victim Silvia Rivera Morales, was on the official list. However, after Morales and other family members saw Commissioner Guadalupe Morfín Otero entering the event with her family, they were finally admitted to the event. Morfín was the first federal official sent to Cd. Juárez to look into the killings. She was not given strong prosecutorial powers though and is focusing instead on making the city safer. Once inside, Alfredo Limas--a member of a Cd. Juárez anti-violence NGO--said that he and family members were followed around the room wherever they went. Limas, a professor at the Autonomous University of Juárez, said "I had a woman following me, listening to what I said, she went wherever I went, always fixed on me." Sources: El Diario (Cd. Juárez), June 4 & 5,
2004. Articles by Arturo Loyola and Armando Rodríguez. El
Norte (Cd. Juárez), June 6, 2004. Article by Rosa Isela
Pérez. Associated Press, June 3, 2004. Along with the other states in Northern Mexico, Chihuahua has less than 2,000 cubic meters of water per person, says Salomón Abedrop López, the vice president of the executive council of the Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Agua y Saneamiento (National Association of Water and Sanitation Businesses, ANEAS). To put this in perspective, Abedrop notes that countries with less than 5,000 cubic meters of water per person are considered by the United Nations to be in critical condition in terms of water resources. Northern Mexico has just 1,900 cubic meters of water per resident which puts it in a class with nations such as Egypt, Iraq and Iran in terms of water resources. However, Mexico as a whole is not in such dire shape. Nationwide there is an average of 4,900 cubic meters of water per person. While Mexico has greater water resources in the south, 60% of the nation's population is in northern and central Mexico, Abedrop said. He also noted that 70% of Mexico's gross internal product comes from this same region--which has only 25% of the nation's water. Not only is water supply a problem in Mexico but so is waste water treatment. Within the next 18 months all cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants will have to have water treatment facilities. There are 306 cities in Mexico of this size and many of them lack the funds necessary for construction. According to Abedrop these cities will start paying fines in 2006 if they do not have waste-water treatment plants in operation. In Chihuahua City, from August 3, 2004 to August 6, ANEAS will have its yearly conference. It is the second largest in Mexico and will have between 1,500 and 1,800 people in attendance. Water industry companies from Canada, the US, the UK, France, Spain and other nations will exhibit at the conference. Source: Heraldo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), June 3, 2004. Article by Antonio Rosales Rodríguez. May 25, 2004 The body of a young woman was found on Monday, May 24 in Ciudad Juárez, near the border of the Francisco I. Madero and Nuevo México neighborhoods. According to police, the unidentified victim had been strangled but showed no other signs of physical violence. Tests are currently being performed to see if the woman had been sexually assaulted. The victim was found partially undressed. The woman's body was found at 5:00 a.m. on Monday by a maquiladora worker who notified authorities. Police officials estimate that the woman was killed between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Police also indicated that the woman was killed elsewhere and that her body was later disposed of on Calle Jesús García, near the corner of Francisco R. Almada. City police were the first to arrive at the scene and then notified state police and the Joint Investigation for Women's Homicides (Fiscalía Mixta para la Atención de Homocidios de Mujeres). Investigators remained at the scene until 10:00 a.m. when the body was taken away. Agents swept the surrounding area for possible evidence. The woman was described as being between 25 and 28 years old, thin, with dark skin and long hair. She was wearing a blue miniskirt and a blue blouse with a floral pattern. To help identify the victim, police stated that she had a mole on her right cheek. Already a number of families have gone to the Forensic Medicine Service's morgue to try and identify the body, police said. The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario stated that the killing was the city's second murder of a woman in 2004. It listed the other case as that of Rebeca Contreras Mancha, a 23 year old mother, who was raped and strangled. Her body was found on March 10, 2004. In the Contreras case the government has a number of people in custody including the drug trafficker Eduardo Almeida Campos aka "El Sixto". Other press accounts have suggested that Contreras was murdered because of her involvement with cocaine sales in downtown Cd. Juárez. Almeida allegedly controlled street-level cocaine sales. A case that El Diario failed to mention was that of Cristina Escobar González, age 25. She died on March 13, 2004 from a blow to the head allegedly suffered during a struggle in a hotel room with Francisco Javier Martínez Lira, age 19. Martínez was detained as he was trying to get Escobar's body into his car. Martínez was identified at the time as a Lear maquiladora worker from Torreón, Coahuila. Drug use may have been a factor in the case. On March 27, 2004, Martín Lazcano Sepúlveda allegedly murdered his wife, Lorenza Verónica Calderón, after he grew worried that she would discover that he had raped her four-year old daughter. Lazcano was arrested on April 4, 2004 after a neighbor called authorities out of worry for injuries that his step-daughter had sustained. Calderón's body was discovered buried at the couple's home. Lazcano, who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, later confessed to the crimes. Sources: El Diario (Cd. Juárez), May 25, 2004.
Article by Armando Rodríguez. May 11, 2004 Greenpeace has joined with other international and Mexican organizations that are demanding the release of indigenous environmental and community activists Isidro Baldenegro and Hermenegildo Rivas. Baldenegro and Rivas, Rarámuri men from the embattled Sierra Tarahumara community of Coloradas de la Virgen, were arrested in their home town on March 29, 2003. The Sierra Tarahumara, better known in the US as the Copper Canyon, is a 10,000 square mile mountainous area that begins 250 miles south of the US-Mexico border and extends to the Chihuahua-Durango border. It is home to nearly 100,000 indigenous people and the region contains old-growth forest, deep canyons, water falls, and endangered thick-bill parrots. Baldenegro and Rivas say that Chihuahua state police broke into the men's homes without search warrants and planted guns and marijuana so that they could arrest the pair. Eye witnesses from Coloradas de la Virgen confirm the raid on the men's homes. The police version of what happened is that agents saw Baldenegro and Rivas walking around with AK-47s and detained them for this. Upon searching Baldenegro they claim that they found him to be carrying marijuana. In Mexico, having weapons of a type only allowed for military use is a serious federal crime. If convicted the men would receive more than ten years in jail. Environmental and human rights groups like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Fuerza Ambiental, and Chihuahua's own State Commission for Human Rights say that Baldenegro and Rivas were targeted because of their success as community leaders and environmental activists. It has been noted that the two were arrested just days after Coloradas de las Virgen community members stopped logging trucks that were working in their community. Previously, in 2002, a Mexican court had ordered an end to all cutting in the area. As FNS reported in April 2004, Baldenegro's father was also a community and forest activist when he died in 1984 after being shot by a high-power rifle--one allegedly fired by a contract killer working for a local, well-known narco-logging family. Other Tarahumara in the area were killed for organizing against illegal forest cutting. Baldenegro's brother, Trinidad Baldenegro, and another men were arrested prior to Isidro Baldenergro and Rivas but have since been freed. According to environmentalists in the Sierra, the narco-logging dynamic is one in which drug traffickers buy up or use logging companies to launder drug money. In this fashion drug money is run through companies and is made to look like profits from logging. Unfortunate for the Sierra's fauna and flora is the fact that such mechanisms allow otherwise unprofitable logging to continue. Marijuana and opium cultivation is also threatening peace in the region. Although drug traffickers used to pay a bit of cash to men to tend the growing fields, they now often pay in cocaine which leads to addiction or to the arrest of men that are trying to sell cocaine for cash. Cocaine is brought into the region by low-flying aircraft that use rough landing strips in the Sierra. To see two April 2003 FNS articles about the Sierra
and the Baldenegro-Rivas case go to: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/apr-may03/main.html In an operation aimed at protecting Cd. Juárez women, city police detained 12 people between April 26 and May 2, 2004. Those arrested were publicly harassing women, drunk and/or under the influence of drugs. The operation focused on protecting working women as they left their places of work and at bus stops. Police also made surprise inspections of private and public busses. Fifty-seven private busses that are contracted by employers to transport their workers between home and work were boarded by police. Nearly 500 public busses received the same sort of scrutiny. While on the busses, city law enforcement agents searched passengers for firearms and drugs. Police say that 184 individuals were arrested during the bus inspections. The charges were related to weapons and drugs. Police also pulled over the drivers of 1,078 vehicles that did not have license plates. Of these drivers, 184 were given tickets. Authorities also fined 47 people for driving in vehicles with windows that were tinted too dark. Internal Affairs Investigation Of the city's approximately 1,800 police and transit agents, the internal affairs office is investigating 100 for potential illegal enrichment. In Mexico it is a punishable crime to have more wealth than one's income can support. This law is typically used to punish corrupt individuals and those engaged in drug trafficking. Internal affairs officers will also investigate the property holdings and bank accounts of police agents' spouses and children. Family members of officers should not have excessive wealth either. Source: El Diario, May 6, 2004. |