-- This message is forwarded to you by the editors of the Chiapas95 newslists. To contact the editors or to submit material for posting send to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. From: "Dana" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Universal,Author probes death of Digna Ochoa,Mar 20 Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 15:32:51 +0100 Author probes death of Digna Ochoa BY DIANA ANHALT/SPECIAL TO THE HERALD MEXICO El Universal March 20, 2006 Mexico's buildings, markets, and expressways perch on the bones of former civilizations. But every once in a while the past obtrudes. Ancient temples buckle under the weight of concrete, steel and glass and expose their columns. In much the same way, below the seemingly calm surface of national consciousness lies an underworld of violence, impunity and abuse. It takes an earthquake to expose the dark side and jolt us back into reality. Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa, like all investigative reporting at its finest, delivers such a jolt. On October 19, 2001 Digna Ochoa, a 37-year-old human rights advocate who defended those who dared challenge the military, the political bosses and the drug lords, lost her life. Her body was found slumped across a sofa, her hands stuffed below, as if arranged. There were signs of a struggle. One bullet had been shot at random, she received another in her left thigh, a third in her left temple. She was wearing red rubber gloves, several sizes too big, filled with powder. Investigators found a death threat on the desk. For those who knew her, this was a tragedy waiting to happen. A former nun and a human rights attorney, Digna was admired in both Mexico and the United States for her courage and dedication. She had received awards, international recognition, and a coveted MacArthur grant. She had also received warnings. Over the years she had, like many of her clients, been tailed, kidnapped, raped, and nearly killed. Following a 1999 kidnapping attempt, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered her position so precarious they ordered Mexico to furnish bodyguards for her protection. Shortly afterward, the organization she worked for, (the Miguel Agusti'n Pro Jua'rez Human Rights Center), suggested she leave Mexico until the situation improved. She moved to Washington, D.C. By the time she returned to Mexico, seven months later, the newly elected president, Vicente Fox, had initiated a procedure to rescind the court-ordered protection. (She lost her bodyguards in August 2001, two months prior to her murder, a fact that was to embarrass the government and infuriate her defenders.) In the past, such a fact might have gone unnoticed. But in recent years a series of circumstances - among them the end of a 70-year PRI party dictatorship and the signing of a trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States - has opened the country to foreign scrutiny and encouraged change. The previously stifled press now covers events formerly taboo, investigative reporting is becoming more sophisticated, journalists and the general public are gaining access to once-sealed documents, and payoffs to the media are less common. Although reporters continue to be persecuted, newspapers are more willing to expose shady practices. As a result, readers are better informed and more likely to protest. While the author mentions this in passing, I believe it merits greater attention than it receives here. As a result no doubt of widespread publicity in both Mexico and abroad, the city government conducted four investigations into Digna's death over a period of 22 months. The findings were flawed by sloppy police work: the omission of medical readings, an unsealed crime scene, and compromised evidence. Despite all indications to the contrary - the death threats, the floppy red gloves, an absence of gun powder residue, a bullet to the thigh, a bullet in the left temple - Margarita Guerra, the last government-assigned prosecutor, concluded that the victim had committed suicide. (Unless the gun had been held upside down and fired with the left hand - Digna was right-handed - this was a physical impossibility.) The case was closed. How, and more importantly, why did authorities ask the public to accept this far-fetched verdict? Attempting to answer this question, writer-journalist Linda Diebel, the "Toronto Star" correspondent to Mexico from 1995 to 2002, provides the background necessary for understanding human rights abuses in Mexico and the miscarriage of justice. This ambitious, fastidiously documented account centers on Digna, She is the glue that holds it together. But the book goes far beyond that. With a journalist's eye for detail, Diebel offers a broad view of Mexican history, politics, economy, and social conditions. Even for those familiar with Mexico's past, its human rights violations, the poverty and the racism, "Betrayed" is an eye-opener and reads like a thriller. If Digna's story is filled with suspense, so is Diebel's. (She is a three-time winner of Amnesty International's media award.) Her personal involvement - her examination of government and press archives, her interviews with investigators and independent experts, her visits with Digna's family and friends - attract attention and threaten her own safety. After all, investigating human rights abuses can be a dangerous business. In attributing Digna's death to suicide, government officials avoided a confrontation with the most likely culprits: Guerrero's political bosses and the Army. Investigators minimized the role played by outside forces. And, of course, they minimized Digna and her work in protecting campesinos in land disputes against powerful landowners, victims of repression by the Mexican armed forces, or ecologists protesting logging interests, A suicide verdict negated the political importance of Digna's actions. In Diebel's words, suicide "stripped Digna's life of political meaning." In addition, it reflected an effort to discredit crucial work on the part of all rights defenders in Mexico. They buried Digna two days after her murder hoping, no doubt, to bury her struggle and her legacy along with her corpse. But phantoms from the past won't rest easy, and the outcry for justice has continued. (In June, 2005, Digna's body was exhumed and the case reopened. By October, 2005 Mexican officials claimed to have found no new evidence.) However, one can only hope that a Mexican publisher will soon be found, and the book will become available in Spanish. Now that writer Linda Diebel has added her eloquent voice to those protesting the miscarriage of justice, perhaps the authorities and the general public will be forced to listen. -- To unsubscribe from this list send a message containing the words unsubscribe chiapas95 (or chiapas95-lite, or chiapas95-english, or chiapas95-espanol) to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Previous messages are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html or gopher to Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, Mailing Lists.
