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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
In Juárez, Arrests Tempered by Unease
 Alfredo Corchado - Dallas Morning News
| | Oscar Maynes, Chihuahua state's former chief forensics expert, still remembers the morning of Nov. 6, 2001, when he learned of the discovery of eight female bodies in a cotton field. (Christ Chavez) |
Many lack confidence in slayings inquiry despite new suspects.
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico – Zona Dorado is a bustling area of new joint ventures, shiny maquiladoras, Pemex gas stations and apartment blocks. But set back from bustling Ejército Nacional Street is a deserted lot choked with dirt, trash and vegetation, dissected by two narrow ditches and harboring old secrets.
They call this corner of Juárez el algodonero, the cotton field. It is the place where, nearly five years ago, police discovered the remains of eight women, some of the more than 100 females sexually assaulted, often mutilated and killed in and around the city since 1993.
In all, at least 400 women have been found slain in and around the city and elsewhere in Chihuahua state in the last 13 years.
Authorities recently announced the arrest of two men in these eight cases and have identified a third suspect. But critics say the handling of the cotton field crimes is emblematic of the indifference, neglect and incompetence that local, state and federal officials have brought to the investigation of the killings, widely known as feminicidos.
"The investigation leaves much to be desired," said Guadalupe Morfin, President Vicente Fox's commissioner for violence against women in Ciudad Juárez. She and the special federal prosecutor have been critical of the investigation, calling on more than 100 Chihuahua authorities to be investigated for negligence.
A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "This is obviously a highly charged, emotional issue, one that we continue to take very seriously as we proceed in our investigation."
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said, "The investigation continues, so it's not the time to assess any blame on anyone."
But interviews with current and former investigators in Juárez, El Paso and Mexico City, along with a review of court records and expert testimony, describe a saga of crime gone unpunished.
Just this week, nearly five years since the cotton field bodies were discovered, the Chihuahua state government used DNA samples to confirm the identities of seven of the eight women. The names of three women initially thought to be among the group were removed from the list and those women reclassified as missing. Two new names were added to the list.
Further, authorities now believe that up to five of the victims attended the same secondary school, according to people close to the investigation.
The DNA testing was conducted by an Argentine forensic team led by Mimi Doretti. The team, known for using advanced DNA techniques to identify people killed in Argentina's 1970s "dirty war," worked closely with the Chihuahua state attorney general's office.
State officials gave the team full access to the remains in the effort, which was funded in part by the Washington Office of Latin America, or WOLA.
Outside inquiry sought
WOLA has urged that independent human rights groups be granted similar access in the investigation, which is continuing. Earlier this year, the group successfully pushed for a U.S. congressional resolution condemning the killings.
"The cases are crying for a full, bigger investigation on a different scale," said Laurie Freeman, a WOLA associate. "While this may seem new for Mexico, independent investigations are a practice common in other countries, whether El Salvador, Guatemala or in Eastern Europe."
The cotton field is an overgrown lot now, ignored by almost everyone except those who have lost loved ones. A white van, with the letters "AFI" painted on its side, is parked on the site. Two employees of the agency, Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, stand guard 24 hours a day, apparently to prevent the dumping of any more bodies.
Pink crosses, stuffed animals and flowers – some plastic and others natural but withered by the sun – serve as memorials to the dead. For relatives of the victims, the field continues to evoke strong emotions – and condemnation.
"This is a place of pain, of shame," said Benita Monarrez, the mother of one of the victims, Laura Berenice Ramos. "It's a place of cruelty."
In July, the federal government quietly announced it was closing its investigation and returning the cases to the state of Chihuahua, saying they did not involve a serial killer or killers and therefore did not involve a federal offense. Fourteen of the most notorious cases in the decade-long saga of murder and sexual mutilation in Juárez were transferred back, including the eight from the cotton field.
Oscar Maynes, former chief forensics expert for the state, still remembers the morning of Nov. 6, 2001. It was 9 a.m. when his cellphone rang as he was on his way to the office.
"I knew immediately it would be a long, dark day," Mr. Maynes recalled.
Authorities had been alerted by a construction worker, José Aguilar Ramírez, who had discovered the decomposing, naked body of a woman.
Carefully excavating the parched earth, a state forensics team found the skeletal remains of three females in one ditch the first day. The second day, they found five more, with some skeletons still bearing tissue.
Mr. Maynes and others say the remains appeared to have been carefully positioned – in sequence, head to toe, with the victims' legs spread apart, each body about 10 feet from the other.
The women appeared to have been strangled, and some officials said the positioning suggested they had been slain by a serial killer, or killers, possibly as part of a satanic ritual, and their bodies placed in the field.
"The killers were clearly part of an organized criminal effort. They were serial killers," Mr. Maynes said. "They knew what they were doing."
Stephen Slater, a U.S. law enforcement investigator, was working on contract with Chihuahua state officials. He heard about the discovery of the bodies and sped toward the cotton field. But a "high-level Chihuahua official called me and told me, 'Stay away, Stephen. We'll handle this,' " Mr. Slater recalled, refusing to identify the caller.
Within 72 hours, Chihuahua state Attorney General Arturo González Rascón charged two bus drivers with the slayings. Since 2003, state and federal officials have tried to discredit the theory of a serial killer or killers, preferring to try to pin the killings on a few questionable suspects.
Mr. Maynes resigned in January 2002, after refusing, he said, to fabricate evidence to implicate the men, Victor "El Cerillo" García Uribe and Gustavo "La Foca" González Meza, both of whom later said they confessed to the crimes after being tortured.
"There was absolutely no physical evidence whatsoever to implicate two innocent men," Mr. Maynes said.
One of two defense lawyers for the men, Mario Escobedo, later was shot and killed by state police, who said they mistook him for a fleeing suspect. Mr. González died in prison during a hernia operation. Last February, the second defense attorney, Sergio Dante Almaraz, also was shot to death. It is not clear if that shooting was tied to the cotton field case. Mr. García was released last year.
Recent arrests
Authorities now say they may have the biggest break in the cotton field crimes with the arrests of Edgar Álvarez Cruz and José Francisco Granados de la Paz and the identification of Alejandro "Cala" Delgado Valle, although some of those same officials privately express doubts about the strength of the cases against the men.
They said other arrests are expected.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in El Paso are holding Mr. Alvarez on immigration violation charges and awaiting a request for his extradition to Mexico. He had been picked up in Denver.
Chihuahua state authorities and U.S. law enforcement officials say Mr. Granados confessed to the crimes, implicated others and mailed letters to relatives in Ciudad Juárez bragging about the slayings and even specifying where he helped bury victims. One family member, who did not want to be identified, denied that the family had received such letters.
The same family member described Mr. Granados and Mr. Álvarez as longtime acquaintances.
Chihuahua officials had variously – and incorrectly – listed Mr. Granados as being in U.S. custody in El Paso, Virginia and West Virginia. He actually is being held in Fort Dix, N.J., charged with illegal entry and an unspecified felony, according to federal prison records. U.S. authorities are also awaiting an extradition request.
Mr. Delgado Valle, meanwhile, originally was said by Chihuahua state authorities to be in U.S. custody in El Paso. But they now say he is in Juárez, cooperating with the investigation. State authorities have said he has been leading authorities there to new gravesites, although federal officials would not confirm that assertion.
Many relatives of the victims remain unconvinced the case is closer to being solved.
"Until you show me scientific proof, I will not believe anything, even if it's the U.S. ambassador telling me," said Ms. Monarrez. She was alluding to a statement by Ambassador Tony Garza announcing the arrest of Mr. Álvarez.
News of the latest suspects brought tears to the eyes of Irma Monreal, whose daughter, Esmeralda Herrera, was one of the women whose bodies were found in the cotton field. The renewed attention, she said, only "opens new wounds to an already open wound about that dreadful place – the cotton field."
Staff writer Lennox Samuels and Belo border bureau chief Angela Kocherga contributed to this report. acorchado@dallasnews.com |
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