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The investigation into the assassination of Digna Ochoa is in the hands of
Mexico City’s Attorney General, not the Federal Attorney General, according
to President Vicente Fox. In a political dig at Mexico City Mayor Lopez
Obrador and an effort to distance his own administration from the
high-profile case, President Fox characterized the murder as “one more
incident that happened in Mexico City.” Fox went on to ‘offer Mexico City’s
Attorney General broad collaboration with information, with investigation,
but the responsibility is theirs.” Lopez Obrador said that the
assassination must be understood in the “context of paramilitaries and
caciques throughout the nation.”
On October 29, Secretary of Government Santiago Creel installed a permanent
government desk dedicated to the protection of human rights workers.
However, members of the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center (PRODH),
where Digna worked for many years, expressed a lack of confidence in the Fox
administration. A spokesperson for PRODH cited the Federal Attorney
General’s office, which is headed by former army General Rafael Macedo de la
Concha, as a particular concern. The Federal Attorney General would be in
charge of protecting human rights workers, yet this same office has been the
focus of a number of human rights cases brought by the PRODH and other human
rights organizations, and is widely suspected of having a hand in the
assassination of Digna.
The Fox administration shelved an investigation of death threats against
Digna in May of this year, placing in question the level of “broad
collaboration” that may be forthcoming and the effectiveness of the
commitment to protect human rights workers.
On October 25, Abel Barrera, director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights
Center of the Mountains in the state of Guerrero, was forced to leave the
state after receiving a series of death threats. Barrera accused the army
and government officials of perpetrating human rights abuses throughout the
state with impunity. Guerrero has a history of perhaps the worst human
rights abuses in Mexico, including the massacres at El Charco and Aguas
Blancas. Mexico City’s Attorney General reported that the most promising
leads in Digna’s assassination are from Guerrero.
A cartoon published in the daily La Jornada by cartoonist Helguera
summarized the feelings of many. The cartoon shows Fox in his weekly radio
interview and references the case of two campesinos who were defended by
Digna: “It’s not alright that one makes accusations in advance. We are not
campesino environmentalists for which crimes can be fabricated.”
Bishop Raul Vera Lopez, former co-Bishop of Chiapas, joined a growing chorus
calling for justice for Digna’s assassins. Gilberto Lopez y Rivas, former
PRD member of the Cocopa, demanded an immediate investigation of the army.
Meanwhile the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), a government agency,
reported credible evidence that 250 of the 531 political activists who were
disappeared during the 70’s and 80’s were actually executed by security
forces, mainly the army. The CNDH cited Military Camp Number One as the
major offender. President Fox has refused to name a truth commission to
investigate human rights abuses during the “dirty war,” despite promising to
do so during his electoral campaign.
