Border Blogs: Expressing our Border Culture

From the Committee to Protect Journalists:

Paraguayan journalist targeted by criminal groups

New York, February 1, 2012-The Committee to Protect Journalists called today on Paraguayan and Brazilian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into death threats against journalist Cándido Figueredo and to ensure his safety. Police officials confirmed last month that they had intercepted a phone call between two criminal figures who discussed killing the Paraguayan journalist, according to local press reports.

Figueredo is the longtime correspondent for the Asunción-based daily ABC Color in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, which is the capital of the eastern Amambay Department. The region, located on the border with Brazil, has a history of lawlessness and contraband activities. Figueredo has been under 24-hour government protection for almost 13 years due to his reporting on drug trafficking, and his car and his office each have been attacked twice by gunmen. The journalist described in a video interview that living under threats and with security guards for so many years has turned him into a recluse, with little ability to socialize or maintain friendships.

Authorities believe the latest threats stem from a series of articles by Figueredo published in ABC Color in September that investigated secret tunnels used for smuggling drugs on the Brazilian side of the border, the daily reported. After publication of the articles, the local Brazilian police's anti-drug unit destroyed the tunnels and arrested several people involved in the trafficking.

In the phone call, which was intercepted by Brazilian authorities in early January, an unidentified Paraguayan man located in the Brazilian city of Capitán Bado complains to an unidentified Brazilian man being held in a jail in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande that drug trafficking operations have been severely disrupted since the publication of Figueredo's articles. After the Brazilian man asks whether the same reporter "as always" has written the stories and what can be done about the situation, the Paraguayan man answers: "If he lived in my area, in my city, he wouldn't live more than six days," according to ABC Color.

"We are deeply concerned for the safety of journalist Cándido Figueredo," said CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría. "In light of the latest threats, we urge Paraguayan authorities to cooperate with Brazilian authorities to thoroughly and assertively investigate these threats and bring those responsible to justice."

CPJ research shows that journalists who report on drug trafficking or local corruption in Paraguayan border towns have been victims of violent reprisals. Radio reporter Tito Alberto Palma was shot to death in the southeastern border town of Mayor Otaño in 2007. Paraguay's eastern border with Brazil -- where smuggling includes not only drugs but cigarettes, fuel, clothes, and electronics -- is particularly dangerous.

###
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization
that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.
Contact:
Carlos LauríaThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

http://fora.tv/2010/04/17/Logan_Symposium_Consequences_of_Investigative_Reporting#fullprogram

It took place in 2010 at the University of CaliforniaThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Exclusive in the El Paso Times today
Miguel De la Madrid's presidency had highest homicide rates of five past Mexican presidents
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19824147
The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Exclusive in the El Paso Times today
Miguel De la Madrid's presidency had highest homicide rates of five past Mexican presidents
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19824147The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

[Eyes are on Mexico. The U.S. CIA director and the U.S. Speaker of the House met separately with Mexican President Felipe Calderon within the past two weeks.//WLM]

January 22, 2012
Security News
Reprinted with permission
Super Embassy on Order
The U.S. government is moving ahead with plans to construct a large new embassy in Mexico City. Slated for the upscale Polanco section of the Mexican capital, the planned complex is envisioned to cover about 13 acres on a plot of land that was purchased from the Colgate-Palmolive company. Estimated to cost between $350 and $450 million, the new quarters for U.S. government agencies operating in Mexico are expected to be fully completed by 2019. In opening bids for the construction, Washington specified that the architecture had to conform with LEED Platinum green building designs.
The Mexico City project is among the latest in a series of building renovations for U.S. diplomatic and foreign policy functions in Mexico and other parts of the world. Last summer, for example, a new consular building covering 100,000 square feet and costing $120 million opened for business in the border city of Tijuana, Baja California. Besides processing 190,000 visas annually, the U.S. Consulate is an important outpost in counter-narcotics work and houses agencies such as ICE, the DEA, the FBI and others.
"We are basically a mini-embassy representing the U.S. government in this part of the world," Steven Kashkett, U.S. counsel general in Tijuana, said at the time of his new office's opening last year.
In good measure, the investment in and upgrade of U.S. diplomatic offices in Mexico reflects the growing importance of law enforcement, military assistance and private defense contracting in the
bilateral relationship between Washington and Mexico City. Mexico is second only to Afghanistan/Pakistan as the nation of priority for US national security planners.
In December, the Obama administration dispatched Captain Colin J. Kilrain to oversee military affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Nominated for rear admiral, Kilrain was previously responsible for counter-terrorism in the National Security Council. A veteran of the Persian Gulf, Balkan, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Kilrain was associated with the elite U.S. Navy SEAL team prior to taking on other responsibilities in the War on Terror.
Kilrain's Mexico City appointment could signal a renewed push by the Obama and Calderon administrations to attack and decapitate the leadership of organized crime organizations before the Mexican president's (and possibly Obama's) term in office ends later this year. The apprehension or elimination of 15 remaining capos on a most wanted list is of special interest to the two allied governments.
Since the launch of the bilateral, anti-drug Merida Initiative, U.S. security-related activities have expanded enormously in Mexico, as has the need for secure space. According to Mexican media reports, a building near the current U.S. Embassy houses Pentagon staff and personnel from an alphabet's soup of other agencies dedicated to implementing the Merida strategy. The company that is awarded the contract for building the new embassy will have to pass a U.S. national security clearance.
Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New MexicoThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

By Kelly McKenzie
Special for WLM
Jan. 8, 2012

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico -- Mexican authorities are investigating the murder of a young woman whose semi-nude body was found this morning in a desert patch in the city's Parajes San Isidro colonia.
The victim, who has not been identified, is estimated to be between 17 and 24 years old.
The grisly find comes a day after Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate for president for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), conducted a campaign visit to the border.
[Information will be updated as more details are released]

The West Mesa (New Mexico) murders

In other matters, the police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are reaching out to the public once again for leads on the murders of 11 women whose bodies were discovered in the West Mesa area in 2010.
They had disappeared between 2003 and 2005 before their bodies were found. The strongest theories to explain the murders include a serial killer or gangs.
According to police, FBI profilers suspect a serial killer.
Kelly McKenzie
Any tips sent to this website will be forwarded to the corresponding authorities.
####The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PIVxT2LRCE&feature=youtu.be

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Feliz Navidad y un prospero 2012 para todos UstedesThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Read about American Shohn Huckabee's case. He filed a complaint with U.S. State Department officials alleging torture by soldiers in Juarez, Mexico. Shohn also alleges he was imprisoned on false drug charges. An English speaker, who is suspected to be American, may have witnessed the torture that included mock execution, beatings and electrocution.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19571634The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Kelly McKenzie recommends stories today in El Paso Times about Shohn Huckabee and his father Kevin Huckabee:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19493136

Read also about Cynthia Kiecker and Ulises Perzabal, a couple that Chihuahua state police tortured into confessing to a murder they did not commit.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_19494764?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.comThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Story below reprinted by permission from CIMAC Noticias in Mexico City:

Fiscalía “atrapa” por cuarta vez a presunto homicida de Esmeralda Herrera
Se repite la historia en caso Campo Algodonero

By Anayeli García Martínez/Dec. 2, 2011

México, DF, 2 dic 11 (CIMAC).\- Sin pruebas suficientes, la Fiscalía del estado de Chihuahua, pretende juzgar a Eduardo Chávez Marín, por el asesinato de Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, una de las ocho víctimas encontradas en el “Campo Algodonero”, en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, advirtió Karla Michele Salas, abogada de la Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos (ANAD).

La tarde de ayer la Unidad Especializada en Investigación para Homicidios de Mujeres presentó a Eduardo Chávez Marín para que rindiera su declaración sobre el feminicidio de Esmeralda.

En entrevista con Cimacnoticias, la abogada de la ANAD quien litigó conjuntamente con el Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (Cladem) el caso ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CoIDH), explicó que se giró una orden de presentación contra Chávez Marín para que volviera a presentar su declaración, sin embargo, será en un término de 48 horas cuando se defina su situación legal.

Está es la cuarta vez que Chávez Marín es presentado ante las autoridades pero de acuerdo con la abogada no hay pruebas fehacientes para vincularlo con el homicidio de la joven de 15 años toda vez que lo único que se tiene son testimonios “de oídas” que jurídicamente no tienen valor probatorio.

¿CHIVO EXPIATORIO?

Según información difundida en los medios por la Fiscalía de Chihuahua, Chávez Marín estaba prófugo de la justicia desde 2006, cuando las autoridades de la ciudad fronteriza iniciaron su búsqueda tras las indagatorias y testimonios levantados que asegura la instancia, “se obtuvieron”, para acreditar su presunta responsabilidad en el delito.

Salas recordó que el día que desapareció Esmeralda (29 de octubre de 2001) se vería con Eduardo, quien entonces trabajaba en una imprenta. Sin embargo, él ha declarado anteriormente que el encuentro nunca se dio.

Señaló que no es de extrañar que esta noticia se dé a unos días de que se cumplan dos años de que la CoIDH sentenció al Estado mexicano por su responsabilidad en la desaparición y posterior muerte de tres de ocho jóvenes encontradas en el Campo Algodonero en 2001.

Además alertó que aunque Chávez Marín tiene antecedentes penales por intento de violación y por violencia intrafamiliar, no tiene el perfil de los asesinos de las jóvenes encontradas en 2001, por lo que advirtió que el Estado mexicano pretende mantener la hipótesis de que los ocho homicidios fueron hechos aislados.

Explicó que durante los últimos diez años las autoridades han presentado a 10 personas como responsables de los homicidios, sin embargo, “nunca han existido pruebas jurídicamente válidas para acusarlas”, por lo que expresó su preocupación de que una vez más se trate de “un chivo expiatorio”.

Señaló que los asesinos de Esmeralda, Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez y Claudia Ivette González, siguieron el mismo “modus operandi”: las desaparecieron, torturaron, las privaron de la vida, y arrojaron los cuerpos en el mismo lugar.

INVESTIGACIONES CUESTIONADAS

Cuando el caso de Campo Algodonero se analizó en la CoIDH, el entonces Comisionado de la ONU, fiscal Carlos Castresana, presentó un peritaje en materia de investigación criminal donde determinó que estos crímenes eran perpetrados por agentes del Estado o por personas que actuaban con anuencia de las autoridades.

El experto puntualizó que se podía concluir que la investigación realizada por las Procuradurías de Justicia estatal y General de la República “no cumplía con los estándares internacionales de debida diligencia en la investigación”.

En ese momento el ex comisionado de la ONU expresó: “Las circunstancias que mejor caracterizan los asesinatos de mujeres de Ciudad Juárez, y entre ellos muy significativamente los crímenes del Campo Algodonero, no son las de los crímenes en sí, sino las de la falta de respuesta y diligencia institucional para el esclarecimiento y persecución de los crímenes”.

Aunque los casos de feminicidio hicieron que las autoridades crearan la Fiscalía Especial para la Investigación de Homicidios de Mujeres, diez años después de las muertes de Campo Algodonero no se han podido esclarecer los asesinatos y sólo se tiene a un presunto culpable: Eduardo Chávez Marín.

En este escenario la abogada recordó que de acuerdo con la sentencia, emitida el 9 de noviembre de 2009, el Estado mexicano tiene que informar periódicamente cómo va el cumplimiento de las recomendaciones internacionales, por lo que no descartó que esta detención sea para que “tenga algo que informar”, el próximo 10 de diciembre, segundo aniversario de la sentencia.
###The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Copyright (c) 2011,WLM
By Kelly McKenzie/WLM
Nov. 30, 2011
JUAREZ, MEXICO - Officials with the state of Chihuahua delivered this week the body of a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing three years ago to her relatives.
Adriana Sarmiento Enriquez, a student at the Allende Preparatory School in the city's downtown, vanished in 2008.
Her body was found Nov. 5, 2009 in a cemetery in San Agustin, a village in the Valle de Juarez, east of Zaragoza.
Her family said officials would not let them view the bodies they held in the morgue to see if she was among the deceased.
The family provided DNA samples for identification purposes, but was not informed until this month that the results from a U.S. lab proved the match to be positive.
The girl's mother said she recognized the girl's clothing, and also would have recognized her by the dental work the girl had done before she turned up missing. In other words, Adriana Sarmiento's mother said she didn't need a DNA test to identify her daughter.
Officials did not explain why it took them two years to notify the family that they had her body in the morgue.
The Los Angeles Press online news service published a story this week alleging that Chihuahua state officials had uncovered a clandestine grave with the bodies of 15 young young women in the Valle de Juarez.
The story, citing unnamed government sources, said the morgue held more than 20 bodies of teenage girls and young women.
Officials denied the account.
Several months ago, the Mexican press published stories about a clandestine grave uncovered in the Valle de Juarez. Technicians from the medical examiner's office were photographed during the excavation work at the site, where they had unearthed five sets of remains.
The authorities never provided a follow-up report on their findings.
According to the Mexican National Commission on Human Rights, a government agency, about 100 girls and young women were reported missing in Juarez this year.
Several of the missing females had attended the Allende Preparatory School or were last seen in the downtown sector.
###The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

[We post this link with the caveat that the story has not been confirmed through independent sources. It is a fact, however, that at least 100 girls and women have been reported missing in Juarez, Mexico, this year.//K.McKenzie]

"http://www.losangelespress.org/mujeres-guardadas-en-la-morgue-de-juarez/"The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Kelly McKenzie would like to bring the following
to readers's attention

Complaint against Mexican officials and drug kingpin filed before the International Criminal Court at The Hague
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19423142

By permission by author of "The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women": 2006; pages 301-302,

"Recommendations
An international tribunal must investigate the officials who presided over Chihuahua state and the federal government when these crimes occurred. Such an international proceeding must reach back to the time of Mexico’s “dirty war,” back to the murder of journalist Manuel Buendia,to the hundreds of executions and disappearances attributed to the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, and to the femicides.
There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that criminal bands used the femicides as terrorist weapons. A succession of Mexican presidents, governors and generals could have stopped this but did not.They had the power to intervene and save lives. Instead, they may have helped to cover up a series of crimes that had a horribly destructive effect
on the society. Although they did not kill anyone directly, their negligence, omission or corruption resulted in untold tragedies they could have prevented. It is reasonable to assume that people will be killed as a result of officials entering into agreements with drug cartels. In this sense,
the deaths are premeditated. That is why these are crimes against humanity.

An institution such as the International Criminal Court at The Hague may try Colombian government officials who facilitated the drug trade, as well as the drug barons who so corrupted police and other officials that
the slaughter of men, women and children can continue without end. It is but a continuation of the former “dirty wars.” Such a tribunal should identify the highest-ranking responsible parties and hold them accountable.
Another option is for parties with legal standing to follow the course of the Center for Justice and Accountability and file U.S. civil lawsuits under the Alien Tort Statute or the Torture Victim Protection Act, against human rights violators. The center based in San Francisco, California,
helped to set legal precedents with a 2004 judgment (Chavez v. Carranza) against a former El Salvador official in Modesto, California, who was implicated in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El
Salvador, and in 2005 in a federal jury case (Doe v. Saravia) against a man who was held liable for torture and extrajudicial slayings in that country.
The U.S. State Department can do much more to facilitate a long-term solution to the crisis. Mexican democracy itself will suffer if justice is deferred. The first step is to acknowledge the scope of the issue, and to work with Mexico to apply a plan that tackles all the fronts. Mexico is an
important partner nation for the United States, and the country is only as good as the security of its men, women and children."

(Spanish translation/del libro Cosecha de Mujeres; 2006)
"Recomendaciones
Un tribunal internacional debe investigar a las autoridades del Estado de Chihuahua y del gobierno federal en ese entonces, cuando se cometieron estos ilícitos.
Tal procedimiento internacional debe abarcar la época de la llamada “guerra sucia’ vigente en México, el asesinato cometido contra el periodista Manuel Buendía y las cientos de ejecuciones y desapariciones atribuidas a los cárteles colombianos y mexicanos de las drogas, así como los femicidios.
Hay evidencia circunstancial abrumadora sobre cómo los grupos delictivos se valieron de los femicidios como armas terroristas.
Aunque la pléyade de presidentes, gobernadores y generales del ejército pudieron haber frenado esta situación, no actuaron.
Gozaron del poder y la facultad para intervenir y salvar vidas. Por el contrario, seguramente contribuyeron a encubrir una serie de delitos con un efecto horrible de destrucción en contra de la sociedad.
Aunque cuando las autoridades no asesinaron directamente a persona alguna, pudieron haber evitado esas inenarrables tragedias si no hubieran actuado con negligencia, omisión y corrupción.
Es razonable suponer que habrá gente asesinada si las autoridades suscriben acuerdos con los cárteles de la droga.
En este sentido, tales muertes fueron premeditadas. He ahí el porqué se trata de crímenes contra la humanidad.
Una institución como la Corte Penal Internacional de La Haya pudiera juzgar a las autoridades colombianas quienes facilitaron el comercio de las drogas, así como a los capos del narcotráfico quienes corrompieron de tal manera a la policía y otras autoridades para continuar sin cesar en la matanza contra hombres, mujeres y niños.
No es más que una continuación de las entonces “guerras sucias.
El referido tribunal debería investigar a los responsables de máximo rango y llamarlos a cuentas.
Otra alternativa, para los participantes con facultades legales, dar seguimiento al Centro de Justicia y Responsabilidad y entablar demandas civiles con base en el Estatuto de Agravios a Extranjeros o el Decreto de Protección para las Víctimas de la Tortura, en contra de los infractores de los derechos humanos.
Este centro, con sede en San Francisco, California, contribuyó a sentar un precedente jurídico con un juicio entablado en el 2004 (Chávez contra Carranza) en contra de un ex funcionario de El Salvador, en Modesto, California, implicado en el asesinato cometido en contra del Arzobispo Oscar Romero, en El Salvador, y un caso federal en el 2005, (Doe contra Saravia) en contra de un hombre señalado como responsable de tortura y de llevar a cabo ejecuciones extrajudiciales en esa nación.
La Secretaría de Estado de Estados Unidos podría hacer mucho más para facilitar una solución a largo plazo para esta crisis. En sí, la democracia mexicana sufrirá si la justicia se aplaza.
El primer paso consiste en reconocer este panorama e, igualmente, colaborar con México en ejecutar un plan que ataque todos los frentes.
México es un socio primordial para Estados Unidos, y ese país será benéfico en la medida como se protejan a sus hombres, mujeres y niños.
(From "The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women;" 2006; by Diana Washington Valdez)The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Read story by Diana Washington Valdez in the El Paso Times

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19419313?source=rss_viewedThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Photo of the new memorial in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, constructed by the Mexican government in memory of the girls and women whose bodies were found in the "cotton field" parcel in 2001, was officially dedicated on Nov. 7. A Juarez activist said the project cost a million dollars. The eight murders have not been solved.The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

(Reprinted with permission)
Memorial honoring women killed in Juárez to be unveiled today
By Marisela Ortega Lozano/El Paso Times/www.elpasotimes.com
11/07/2011
Over a two-day timespan 10 years ago, eight young women were found murdered in a Juárez cotton field. Their memory, along with other women killed in the city, will forever be ingrained in the minds of Juárez's citizens.
Today at 9 a.m., Mexi
can officials will unveil a memorial remembering all women killed in Juárez. The ceremony takes place at a cotton field in Juárez, at the intersection of Paseo de la Victoria and Ejército Nacional, where eight young women's bodies were found on Nov. 6 and 7, 2001.
Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, Deputy Secretary of the Mexican Department of the Interior's Legal Affairs, Mexican government and human rights officials are scheduled to attend the event.
Mexican congresswoman Adriana Terrazas, who is secretary for the Femicides Commission, said the memorial should be seen as a sign that violence against women shouldn't be allowed either in Juárez or Mexico.
"It should be like a quiet scream of 'enough is enough,'" Terrazas said in a statement.
The memorial complies with a December 2010 sentence issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. That court ruled the Mexican government did not thoroughly investigate the 2001 cotton field murder cases and instructed the government to reinvestigate them and follow other directives.
"We are carrying out a public act of accountability with the unveiling" of the memorial, according to the National Committee to Prevent and Eliminate Violence Against Women in Mexico.
In connection with those murders, two maquiladora bus drivers, Victor Javier García Uribe and Gustavo González Meza, were detained and formally charged of sexually assaulting and murdering all eight victims, according to a summary written by the Mexican Committee of Defense and Protection of Human Rights.
On July 14, 2005, García Uribe was released because of a lack of proof to bring any charges against him.
González Meza died on Feb. 8, 2003, while in custody after complications from surgery, state authorities said.
###


Monumento en Memoria de las Mujeres Víctimas de Homicidio en Juárez
Marisela Ortega Lozano SomosFrontera/www.elpasotimes.com/www.somosfrontera.com
11/06/2011
CIUDAD JUÁREZ -- A 10 años del hallazgo de ocho jóvenes mujeres violadas y asesinadas en Juárez, finalmente se descubrirá el Monumento en Memoria de las Mujeres Víctimas de Homicidio por Razones de Género, informaron las autoridades federales y estatales en México.
Será este lunes 7 de noviembre, a las 9 de la mañana, cuando autoridades de los tres niveles de gobierno inauguren la efigie, justo en el sitio donde las ocho víctimas fueron abandonadas ya sin vida, en el campo algodonero ubicado entre las avenidas Paseo de la Victoria y Ejército Nacional, frente a la sede de la Asociación de Maquiladoras de Ciudad Juárez.
Se trata de un acto público de reconocimiento de responsabilidad internacional, a partir de la emisión de la sentencia dictada por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, en contra del estado mexicano, el 10 de diciembre del 2009 , expresó un vocero de la Secretaría de Gobernación, en un comunicado de prensa.
El 6 y 7 de noviembre del 2001, los restos de ocho jóvenes desaparecidas y asesinadas fueron descubiertos en ese predio y, según los informes preliminares de los peritos forenses, las víctimas fueron torturadas, algunas de ellas estaban atadas de manos y otras habían sido calcinadas.
Con relación a estos ocho homicidios, las autoridades judiciales detuvieron a los choferes Víctor Javier García Uribe El Cerillo , de 29 años, y Gustavo González Meza La Foca , de 28, a quienes se les fincó responsabilidad por el secuestro y ataque en contra de las víctimas, según la policía estatal, en aquel entonces.
Muñoz murió en la prisión estatal de Chihuahua, en febrero del 2003, supuestamente a causa de complicaciones quirúrgicas por una hernia, mientras que García Uribe recuperó su libertad en el 2007, al no comprobársele su supuesta responsabilidad en los asesinatos.
Ambos fueron asesorados por los abogados César Escobedo y Sergio Almaraz Mora, quienes sostuvieron que sus dos clientes fueron torturados para confesarse culpables de esos ilícitos.
César Escobedo, de 29 años, pereció acribillado a tiros la noche del 5 de febrero del 2002, en Juárez, a manos de agentes de la Policía Judicial del Estado, quienes supuestamente lo confundieron con un fugitivo de la justicia de Chihuahua, apodado El Venado .
Almaraz Mora pereció ejecutado en Juárez, en el 2009.
En la sentencia dictada el 10 de diciembre del 2009, la Corte aludió al caso de desaparición y ulterior muerte de las jóvenes Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal y Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, cuyos cuerpos fueron encontrados en un campo algodonero de Ciudad Juárez el día 6 de noviembre de 2001.
La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos argumentó la responsabilidad internacional del Estado mexicano por la falta de medidas de protección a las víctimas; la falta de prevención de estos crímenes, pese al conocimiento de la existencia de un patrón de violencia de género en la zona; la falta de respuesta de las autoridades frente a la desaparición; la falta de debida diligencia en la investigación de los asesinatos; y la denegación de justicia y la falta de reparación adecuada, según el dictamen de la CIDH.
En el acto conmemorativo de este lunes estará presente Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, Sub Secretario de Adjuntos Jurídicos y Derechos Humanos de la Secretaría de Gobernación, así como Dilcya Samantha García Espinoza de los Monteros, Comisionada Nacional para la Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia contra las Mujeres.
(Con información de la reportera de El Paso Times, Diana Washington Valdez.)
###The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

Locals say Turin,Italy has negative/positive energy spots, and straddles black and white magic triangles ...
See story and photo gallery at
www.elpasotimes.com/ci_19233378?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.comThe Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

U.S. cable advises against driving or taking the bus in Juarez, Mexico. See more at
http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/wikileaks/The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.

[Blog staff: Give Peace a Chance ...]

Basque Group ETA Says Armed Campaign is Over
By the BBC/Oct. 20, 2011

The Basque separatist group Eta says it has called a "definitive cessation" to its campaign of bombings and shootings.
In a statement provided to the BBC, Eta called on the Spanish and French governments to respond with "a process of direct dialogue".
The declaration, if followed through, would bring an end to Eta's campaign of violence, which has lasted more than 40 years and killed more than 800 people.
Spain's PM said the move was "a victory for democracy, law and reason".

See rest of the story at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15393014The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, the first investigative book about the Juarez murders by a U.S. journalist.