Murder Case Solved But Killings Go On
Theories are rife about the deaths of 200 women in one Mexican city
by Jo Tuckman
Women's bodies are once again appearing in the desert hinterland of Juarez, ending an eight-month respite from a murder spree which has claimed the lives of 200 women since 1993.
The respite followed claims by the Mexican authorities that they had solved the mystery of the murders. But while the latest discoveries are prompting renewed fear, few people seem surprised - the residents of this booming border city have seen it all before.
"I felt so bad about the latest girls to fall," says Irma Perez during a poorly attended demonstration called to demand an end to violence. Her daughter's scarcely recognisable body was found in the desert in 1995, a month after she disappeared.
Many of the 200 victims were young, poor migrants from the south, drawn to this gritty city of 1.3m just over the Rio Bravo from Texas, by offers of work in its mushrooming export assembly industry.
The murder figures are not disputed, but there are wildly conflicting reports of the way the woman died. Some people claim all the bodies were found with signs of sexual abuse. But the authorities say only 64 showed definite signs of sexual abuse, with a further 21 bodies too decomposed to make a definite assessment.
"I understand the panic at the beginning about a serial killer, but there are different kinds of murders. There are those of a sick psychopath, and those for diverse motives," says Suly Ponce, the special investigator for murders of women.
Ms. Ponce took up the post after a new government took office in Chihuahua state in 1998. Her appointment was made at a time of intense political pressure for action to stop the murders. Mexican feminists allege that she is more concerned to question the reputations of the victims than to search for their killers.
The previous administration had arrested an Egyptian-born chemist, Omar Latif Sharif, in 1995 in connection with several killings, but bodies had continued to turn up.
In 1996, a gang of petty criminals was arrested and accused to committing murders at Sharif's behest. It was claimed the murders were part of his strategy to make it appear that the real killer remained at large. But still, the killings continued.
Last May the authorities announced they had definitely cracked the case. They arrested a group of bus drivers who, they claimed, were paid $1,200 by Sharif to kill two women every month. The murders then stopped until this year.
Ms. Ponce scribbles down figures showing a dramatic drop in the number of murders recorded since her appointment. She says the latest deaths do not appear to be related to the earlier serial killings, and is convinced the right men are in jail.
"Sharif is a psychopath," she says, after insisting that Egyptians are well known for their scant respect for women's rights. "The others are just multi-murderers."
Although the elaborate story spun around Sharif - who was given a 30 year jail term last year for the murder of a 17 year old girl - has failed to convince many, his record of sexual crime in the United States, and the sudden halt to the murders in 1999, have won him few defenders.
But one woman campaigns in his name. "He is an ideal scapegoat: a foreigner, alone and with a criminal record," says Irene Blanco, his legal representative.
Ms. Blanco promises a book later this year detailing how the real murderers are linked to the Juarez drug cartel and protected by the authorities.
"They say that I am crazy, but they don't say why," says this wealthy mother of two who claims a gangland-style attack on her son last year was a direct result of the case.
"All they say is that Irene is in love with Sharif, but so what if I am? I don't claim he's innocent because he's gentle or attractive. I say it's an absurd story...It's absurd to say he wanted to buy his freedom by paying people to murder, when it would make so much more sense to just buy off the judge."
Esther Chavez, who spearheaded the movement that forced the creation of the special investigator post, says that, while she believes Sharif is a rapist, she thinks he was jailed to primarily defuse the pressure to find the killer.
"The impunity has created a situation in which anybody can kill women," says Ms. Chavez, who last year opened a women's crisis centre and says she quit the fight to clear up the murders "to look after the survivors".
She now believes the killers are many, nurtured by a macho backlash against working women. "At the centre we see so many women and children abused in so many horrible ways, why not kill them, too."
Ms. Perez is one of only a handful of victims' relatives still focused on the murders. She says she does not know whether Sharif is guilty, but she does know that the investigation into her daughter's death has gone nowhere.
"Every day I get disappointed, but I never give up," she says. But most of the other relatives, and the city's population, appear to have done just that.
Copyright 2000 News Unlimited (UK)