Impotence, Corruption Hampers Probe Into Juarez Murders
by The Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Nearly 100 murders of women in Juarez, Mexico, are unlikely to be solved because of official incompetence and corruption, according to some Mexican officials familiar with the cases.
More than 320 girls and women have been killed in Juarez in the past nine years. About 90 of the murders involved methods associated with serial killers, according to FBI profilers and other experts who have examined the cases.
The murders have included mutilation, torture, rape, stabbing and shooting, and bodies have been found in clusters. The murders continue despite official assurances each time that the perpetrators have been caught.
Cover-ups, contaminated evidence, witness intimidation and a corrupt system filled with incompetent officials, eager to charge someone so they can declare the cases closed, have sabotaged the investigations, critics say.
"We were asked to help plant evidence against two bus drivers who were charged with the murders," former Chihuahua state forensic chief Oscar Maynez Grijalva told the El Paso Times in a copyright story in its Sunday editions.
"A couple of police officers brought us items for us to put in the van they said was used to abduct the women," said Maynez, who worked on the most recent case involving eight women whose bodies were found in November. "We had already checked the van and another vehicle belonging to the Suspects for such things as human hair, fibers and blood -- anything that could link the two suspects to the victims.
"We found nothing. The van was clean."
Maynez said he reported the officers, who he declined to name, to his supervisors. He also warned that a serial killer could be responsible for the murders.
"As far as I know, no one asked (Maynez) to plant evidence," said Chihuahua state Deputy Attorney General Jose Ortega Aceves.
"The suspects (two bus drivers who say they were tortured) confessed to the murders, and that is an important part of the investigation."
Maynez, who quit his job on Jan. 2 in disgust, said he has been threatened since he reported the corruption, but declined to give details.
"We are willing to investigate any of these allegations if proof is presented to us," Ortega said.
In January, Jorge Campos Murillo, a federal deputy attorney general in Mexico City, alleged that "juniors" -- sons of wealthy Mexican families -- were connected to some of the sex and torture killings.
Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to another section of the federal attorney general's office. He no longer answers questions about the Juarez cases.
Other Mexican federal law enforcement officials allege further that six people from the Juarez-El Paso region and Tijuana are having women abducted for orgies and then killed. They allege that the suspects are prominent men who cross the border regularly, are involved in major businesses, are associates of drug cartels and have ties to politicians in President Vicente Fox's administration.
In response to those allegations, Gabriela Lopez, spokeswoman for the federal attorney general's office in Mexico City, said, "These cases do not fall under (federal) jurisdiction ... the Chihuahua state attorney general's office is handling the cases."
And as far back as 1999, officials trying to solve the murders expressed frustration about the level of cooperation from local law enforcement.
"We were invited by the Chihuahua authorities to help, but we soon discovered that police were blocking our work, and it was because police were involved in some of the murders, or were protecting someone who was killing women," said Mexico City criminologist Oscar Defassioux.
Suly Ponce, a Chihuahua special prosecutor at the time who now works for the Chihuahua governor's office, said the allegations are only Defassioux's opinions.
Others in the community have been threatened when they spoke publicly about the murders or became involved with victims' families.
Marisela Ortiz, a Juarez teacher who is helping families of slain women in Juarez and Chihuahua City, said she received a surprise visit from state Attorney General Arturo Gonzalez Rascon.
"After I agreed to get involved, several state officials began harassing me, and told me to mind my own business," Ortiz said.
"Gonzalez Rascon met with me and he tried to discourage me from what I was doing."
Gonzalez Rascon denied meeting with Ortiz. Samira Izaguirre, a Juarez radio talk-show host, said she might be forced to seek asylum in Canada or the United States because of death threats and a government smear campaign against her.
After she allowed critics of the government investigation on her show, a newspaper ad appeared attacking Izaguirre. A receipt for the ad obtained by the Times indicates it was paid for with government funds.
And through it all, relatives of the murdered women are finding no solace.
"I am sick at the impotence we families feel in the face of the murders and disappearances of our daughters," said Benita Monarrez, whose daughter, Laura B. Ramos Monarrez, was murdered.
"I was reluctant to sign for what I thought was Laura's body, and now they're saying that the DNA didn't match.
"If that is true, then who did we bury?"
Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press