[Marxism] RE: Juarez Killings- Mexico Moves to Stop Police Killings ofWomen

["Tony Abdo" <gojack10@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mock Trial Held for Ciudad Juarez Deaths
By BARBARA VAZQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico - Mothers of the slain women of Ciudad Juarez received a
measure of symbolic justice on Saturday, during a mock trial in northern
Mexico.     Mexican authorities say 258 women have been killed over the past
decade in Juarez, including nearly 100 eerily similar killings in which the
victims were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in the nearby desert.
 Seven mothers of women who were killed or disappeared from the rough
border town testified at the First Trial of Conscience before a jury of
human rights activists.

The mock jury of six demanded a political trial of Chihuahua state Governor
Patricio Martinez and his predecessor, Francisco Barrio, and the immediate
firing of Chihuahua state prosecutor Jesus Jose Solis.    The jury of
conscience also called for sanctions against judges, magistrates, police and
other officials for failing to act or obstructing the investigation,
allowing crimes to go unpunished.

"Finding the people responsible for these crimes is urgent," said Silvia
Solis Hernandez, of the Protest Campaign Against Femicide and Impunity in
Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, one of dozens of human rights groups to attend
the mock trial. "But it's also urgent to hold responsible authorities for
negligence, for omissions, tolerance, complicity and corruption."

Although there have been more than a dozen arrests in connection with the
Juarez killings, only one man ? and Egyptian resident of the United States ?
has been convicted of one killing. Meanwhile, bodies continue to turn up.
Testimony from victims' families Saturday asserted that the practice of
torture to produce confessions continues in the state of Chihuahua.

After four hours of testimony, the jury demanded the substitution of
directors of the Chihuahua Women's Institute and the State Commission for
Human Rights for not supporting the cause of the victims in Juarez.   The
mock jury urged legislators to reclassify forced disappearances as a more
serious crime.   Solis Hernandez acknowledged that the federal government
has responded to pressure to solve the killings in Juarez and the capital of
Chihuahua state.

"On the basis of social and international pressure, the federal government
looks committed to responding, although belatedly and inefficiently," Solis
Hernandez said.

Fox has appointed Special Prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina and selected a human
rights lawyer, Guadalupe Morfin, to head a commission coordinating the
efforts of agencies investigating the slayings.    The special prosecutor
lacks sufficient resources and the commissioner needs a greater legal
mandate to make their respective work effective, Solis Hernandez said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, March 6, 2004
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON ? The slayings of women in Ciudad Juárez over the last 10 years ?
increasingly seen as an embarrassment for Mexico's government ? are
attracting serious attention from U.S. lawmakers, some of whom are calling
for congressional hearings on the crimes.

"There's significant concern, and it's been there for quite some time, for
several years," said a State Department official who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "We see it as both a border-security and human-rights problem."

Washington is concerned, the official added, that there is "no resolution in
sight" for many of the murders.

During meetings in Crawford, Texas, that ended Saturday, "President Bush
raised the issue during dinner, and President Fox talked about it again in
the morning. It was certainly an issue of discussion, an issue of concern,
real concern on both sides," said a U.S. official present during the
meetings.

Said Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., "I think there is a movement in Washington
that has grown tremendously over the last few months" to see the crimes
solved.

Ms. Solis sponsored a congressional resolution in November that condemned
the more than 320 killings and the way Mexican authorities had been
investigating them.

Other than 14 cases being handled by President Vicente Fox's government, the
investigation is being led by the state of Chihuahua, where Juárez is
located.

Support for Ms. Solis' resolution has grown from six members of the House to
78.

"We won't get action in 24 hours, but we're moving ahead," she said. "This
country has gone out to defend the rights of women. Now the focal point is
just a minute or so from El Paso, Texas."

Two weeks ago, the State Department's annual human rights report was
released, containing unusually blunt language about human rights in Mexico
and specific criticism of law enforcement officials in Juárez.

The report stated that Mr. Fox's efforts to promote human rights had
"stalled" and cited Mexico's "historic police corruption," pointing to
Mexico City, the southern states of Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca and the
northern state of Chihuahua.

In 2003, the Juárez police department received more than 300 complaints
against police officers for "corruption, bribery, threats, abuse, murder,
kidnapping and extortion of victims apprehended for minor traffic
violations," the report stated.

"The police regularly obtain information through torture, prosecutors use
this evidence in courts, and the courts continue to admit as evidence
confessions extracted under torture," the report continued. "Police have
been involved in kidnappings, armed robbery, and extortion, as well as
protection of criminals and drug traffickers."

The document also noted that between January and July last year, 502 police
officers in Mexico City were imprisoned for various crimes. That compared
with 624 in 2002 and 257 in 2001, for the same period.

"It's clear that the streets of Mexico [are growing] dangerous," the State
Department official said. "Ciudad Juárez has a clear human rights [and]
security problem, magnified in narcotics and sexual crimes."

Some Mexican officials have criticized the State Department report in
speeches and in meetings with reporters. The officials noted that more than
1,000 federal police, and scores of Army soldiers, have been assigned to
Juárez.

And a new DNA bank has yielded the identities of two of the slain women,
said investigators from the Mexican attorney general's office.

"We regret the selectivity of some of their sources and the fact that the
document does not reflect advances that have been made in the country in
recent years," said Carlos Alberto de Icaza Gonzalez, Mexico's new
ambassador to the United States.

Juárez "is a subject on which today we are working with total intensity,"
added Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha. "We've put a special
prosecutor to work there, and the prosecutor is acting on all the issues.
All of the files related to these murders are being reviewed."

Ms. Solis, however, questioned whether Mexico's federal prosecutors and
investigators were being given adequate resources to solve the crimes. She
said Mexico should accept that Washington is "willing to do whatever we can
to assist, without getting its nationalistic feelings hurt."

Staff writer Ricardo Sandoval in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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