[1157] in peace2
Demand Justice for Human Rights Defenders: Digna Ochoa Assassinated
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rebecca Charnas)
Tue Oct 23 10:27:06 2001
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Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 10:23:24 -0400
From: Rebecca Charnas <rcharnas@MIT.EDU>
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One of Mexico's leading human rights attorneys, Digna Ochoa, has been
assassinated. Last year, I had the opportunity to meet her and to work
closely with the Human Rights Center that she was a part of. I can tell
you that they are wonderful people doing some of the best human rights
work currently going on in Mexico. Unfortunately, it is their very
talent and determination that has put their lives in peril. I'm
forwarding this alert from the San Francisco human rights organization,
Global Exchange. Please take the time to fax Mexico's President Vincente
Fox and the US State Department with your concern. If we have any hope
for human rights in Mexico or around the world, such flagrant abuse and
intimidation of human rights defenders cannot be allowed to continue
with impunity.
-Rebecca
Ted Lewis wrote:
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> It is with sadness and outrage that I send you this collection of articles
> about the assassination of Digna Ochoa y Plácido, Mexican lawyer and human
> rights defender.
>
> In response to this murder we have taken direction from the Human Rights
> Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez and have written a letter to President
> Vicente Fox, with demands for proper follow up and investigation into the
> murder. The letter also requests that the Fox administration provide
> protection for other human rights defenders under threat. You can add your
> comments and send this letter as a fax from our website at:
> http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico/digna102201.html
> In the coming week, human rights organizations throughout the USA will be
> organizing delegations and visiting their local Mexican embassies or
> consulates to express their concern for this murder and it's implications
> for human rights work in Mexico. If you would like to be involved with
> coordinating these delegations, please call your local Mexico human rights
> group, Carleen at Global Exchange (415 255 7296 ext.239) or Jessica at
> Mexico Solidarity Network (415 621 8100).
>
> 1) Human Rights Lawyer Shot Dead in Mexico, Washington Post Foreign Service
> October 21, 2001
> 2) Mexican Human Rights Lawyer Is Killed, New York Times, October 21, 2001
> 3) More than 80 NGOs demand an expeditious investigation into the
> assassination of Digna Ochoa, La Jornada, October 20, 2001
> 4) Chronicle of threats and harrassment against human rights defender linked
> to the Human Rights Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez, La Jornada,
> October 20, 2001
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1)
>
> Human Rights Lawyer Shot Dead in Mexico
> Ochoa Defended Many Who Accused Military of Torture; Colleagues Threatened
>
> Kevin Sullivan
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> October 21, 2001
>
> MEXICO CITY, Oct. 20 -- One of Mexico's leading human rights lawyers,
> who had been kidnapped and threatened in the past for her defense of
> clients alleging torture by Mexico's military and security services, was
> found shot to death in her office.
>
> Digna Ochoa y Placido, 37, a former nun, was found Friday with gunshot
> wounds to her face and legs. A note found beside her threatened activists at
> the Mexico City organization where Ochoa had done much of her work, the
> Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center.
>
> "She was a role model for all human rights defenders," the Rev. Edgar
> Cortez, a Jesuit priest who runs the center, said at a memorial service
> today attended by more than 100 people. "This act was a clear aggression
> against the entire human rights community."
>
> Mexico has a grim record of human rights violations, especially
> involving the military. Human rights activists here generally work in
> an environment of harassment and intimidation.
>
> As a lawyer handling high-profile cases that often caught international
> attention, Ochoa had received numerous death threats and was kidnapped twice
> in 1999.
>
> In one of the abductions, she was tied to a chair in her home for
> nine hours while her captors interrogated her about her clients and their
> possible connection to guerrilla groups. They opened a canister of natural
> gas and left her to die, but she managed to free herself.
>
> Perhaps Ochoa's best-known clients at the human rights center were
> Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, two ecologists from Guerrero
> state who have been jailed since May 1999 on weapons and drug convictions.
>
> Human rights activists say the two were arrested simply for challenging the
> government and powerful private logging interests. Montiel and Cabrera have
> received several prestigious environmental awards while in prison.
>
> Montiel and Cabrera say they were tortured for several days by Mexican
> soldiers. Ochoa was an outspoken critic of the military's history of
> torture, killings and disappearances.
>
> In 1999 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a resolution
> urging the Mexican government to protect Ochoa. Amnesty International
> and the American Bar Association presented Ochoa with awards for her work.
>
> Last year, facing more threats, Ochoa left the human rights center and moved
> to Washington, where she worked for the Center for Justice and International
> Law.
>
> She returned to Mexico this year and was representing two brothers
> accused of planting bombs that exploded outside a Mexico City bank in
> August. The brothers are suspected members of a small Marxist guerrilla
> group. Their first court appearance was scheduled for Monday. Ochoa's
> friends called the timing suspicious.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 2)
>
> Mexican Human Rights Lawyer Is Killed
>
> Ginger Thompson
> New York Times
> October 21, 2001
>
> One of Mexico's most prominent human rights lawyers was found shot to
> death in her office here on Friday, bringing criticism of the
> administration of President Vicente Fox from environmentalists and
> rights advocates.
>
> The lawyer, Digna Ochoa, 37, was a longtime advocate at the Jesuit-run
> Miguel Agustin Pro Center for Human Rights. She was perhaps most widely
> recognized for defending two jailed peasant farmers considered by Amnesty
> International to be "prisoners of conscience." The two men, Rodolfo Montiel
> and Teodoro Cabrera, protested logging by local political bosses and were
> imprisoned in May 1999 on dubious gun and drug charges. They have lost
> numerous appeals despite official findings that they were arbitrarily
> detained and then tortured.
>
> Ms. Ochoa, winner of Amnesty International's Enduring Spirit Award, had been
> menaced by death threats for years, often in notes devised from newspaper
> clippings that appeared under her door. In 1999, she was kidnapped and
> beaten. Two months later, she was tied, blindfolded and tortured in her home
> for nine hours. No arrests were made in the attacks.
>
> Hoping the danger would pass, Ms. Ochoa spent several months outside Mexico.
> She returned home in April, formally separating herself from the human
> rights center but continuing to pursue high-profile political cases.
>
> A number of her clients were accused of being members of guerrilla
> organizations. Among them were two brothers accused in August of planting
> small bombs near automatic bank teller centers in well-to-do neighborhoods
> in Mexico City.
>
> New threats against Ms. Ochoa began appearing in September. An
> obscenity-laden note found Friday next to Ms. Ochoa's body warned former
> colleagues at Miguel Agustin Pro that they could be next. Ms. Ochoa, a
> native of the gulf coast state of Veracruz, had been shot at close range in
> the head and thigh.
>
> In a news conference on Saturday, investigators said they believed that Ms.
> Ochoa's killing was political. Colleagues from across the world said that
> her death stained the political transition being led by President Vicente
> Fox.
>
> "This is a horrible, tragic blow to human rights protection in Mexico,"
> said Curt Goering, deputy executive director of Amnesty International
> U.S.A. "The rhetoric of the Fox administration indicated that he was
> prepared to deal with human rights issues differently than in the past.
> Well, in the aftermath of an event like this, that rhetoric rings hollow."
>
> Mr. Fox, whose election last year ended the 71-year rule of the
> Institutional Revolutionary Party, had promised not only to open
> investigations into past abuses of power but also to root out corruption
> within the government. His commitment to ending torture by the military and
> federal law enforcement agencies was applauded by human rights advocates
> around the world.
>
> However, 10 months after the start of Mr. Fox's presidency, his promise to
> create a truth commission remains unfulfilled. Human rights officials were
> alarmed when Mr. Fox appointed a military general as attorney general. Hopes
> for real changes in the culture of impunity grew dim as months passed
> without any significant reversals in the fate of prisoners like Mr. Montiel
> and an Army brigadier general, Jose Francisco Gallardo.
>
> General Gallardo was arrested in November 1993 on charges of slandering the
> armed forces by criticizing abuses against civilians. The charges were
> dismissed a year later, yet he remains in prison.
>
> "President Fox seems to be more concerned about keeping the military happy
> than he is about stopping their abuses," said Alejandro Queral of the Sierra
> Club, which has supported Mr. Montiel's defense.
>
> A statement issued by the Interior Ministry lamented Ms. Ochoa's murder and
> reiterated the government's commitment to human rights.
>
> Edgar Cortez, director of the Miguel Agustin Pro Center, was not encouraged.
> At a memorial Mass for Ms. Ochoa, he called the killing "an ominous sign"
> that impunity continues to undermine justice.
>
> cited several recent incidents of assaults on human rights investigators in
> Chiapas, including one lawyer whose home was set on fire and another who was
> nearly run down by a speeding vehicle. Mr. Cortez said that law enforcement
> agencies conducted only half-hearted investigations into such attacks.
>
> "The general atmosphere of threats and violence has never been quashed," he
> said. "Digna's murder is only the most heinous in a series of troubling
> incidents."
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 3)
>
> More than 80 NGOs demand an expeditious investigation into the assassination
> of Digna Ochoa
>
> The crime, ³directly damages the struggle for the enforcement of human
> rights in Mexico,² they stated
>
> Claudia Herrera Beltran
> La Jornada
> October 20, 2001
>
> The assassination of the lawyer Digna Ochoa immediately mobilized more than
> 80 non-government organizations, to demand a public pronouncement by
> President Vincente Fox regarding this fact, an expeditious independent
> investigation to clarify it, as well as the effective protection of human
> rights and its defenders in Mexico.
>
> The national and international NGOs classified the homicide as a ³serious
> step backwards² in the attempt to construct a different society in Mexico,
> and signaled that this ³seriously questions² the government compromise in
> advancing the enforcement of human rights in the country.
>
> ³The harassment, threats and execution, as well as the ineffectiveness
> and/or lack of political voluntary of the justice apparatus in clarifying
> this type of fact and penalizing those responsible darkens the hopes of
> society for a process of democratization in the country,² they warned in a
> statement which was sent out a day after the assassination.
>
> Among the organizations that signed the letter were the Mexican chapter of
> Amnesty International, Global Exchange, the Mexican League for the Defense
> of Human Rights, the Fray Francisco de Vitoria Human Rights Center, the
> Social Communication Center (Cencos), the Mexican Academy of Human Rights,
> and the Christians for the Abolition of Torture.
>
> General Condemnation
>
> The 82 groups expressed their profound pain and condemnation for the
> execution of this defender of human rights, which occurred last Friday in a
> location in the Roma quarter.
>
> This crime, they stated, is a direct offence to the struggle for the
> enforcement of human rights in Mexico and in any other place, and that the
> violent silencing of a voice that was always committed to the defense of
> victims constitutes a serious step backwards in the search for a different
> society.
>
> They indicated that it very disturbing that these cases of harassment,
> threats, and intimidation of defenders of human rights continue in different
> regions of Mexico, like what happened to the director of the Fray Bartolome
> de la Casas Human Rights Center, Marina Patricia Jimenez.
>
> With this motive, they urgently demand the immediate establishment of
> policies that guarantee the work and protection of the defenders of human
> rights, in accordance with the declaration released by the General Assembly
> of the United Nations.
>
> In the specific example of Ochoa they demanded a pronouncement from Fox, and
> that the federal and capital governments immediately recognize a report on
> the investigations of the denouncements of threats and harassment of those
> who have been victims, as have many of the lawyers of the Human Rights
> Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez.
>
> In the General Office of Justice in the Federal District an investigation of
> an expeditious and independent means was requested, in accordance with
> Mexico¹s international obligations in these matters, so that those
> responsible be judged and punished in conformance with the current justice
> system.
>
> The complete and effective protection for all defenders of human rights in
> Mexico was also requested, specifically for the lawyers of of Pilar Noriega
> and Barbara Zamora, family members and teams of colleagues, as well as the
> members of the Miguel Agustin Pro Center.
>
> In addition, it was requested that Mexico fulfill the recommendations
> formulated by national and international human rights organizations in terms
> of the protection of defenders, with the intention of establishing effective
> means of protection in favor of this sector of frequently threatened
> citizens.
>
> At night, many of the NGO representatives agreed to carry out protests.
> Erendira Cruz, the director of Cencos, signaled that the first of the them
> will be a meeting in front of the Secretary of Government, this Monday at 4
> pm, with the intention of pressuring the authorities to carry out an
> exhaustive investigation of this case.
>
> Cruz indicated that this crime ³is a strong blow² to the non-government
> organizations that have fought for the democratization of the country, which
> will have serious implications because it represents a transgression to the
> process of transition which Mexico is experiencing.
>
> Between the organizers of the protest in front of the Secretary of
> Government, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, president of the Eureka Committee, was
> in attendance, as well as members of the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center
> and the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Center.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 4)
>
> Chronicle of threats and harrassment against human rights defenders linked
> to the Human Rights Center Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez
>
> Claudia Herrera Beltran
> La Jornada
> October 20, 2001
>
> 1995
>
> 17th of August. David Fernandez, the Director of the Miguel Agustin Pro
> Center of Human Rights, received two anonymous death threat calls, one at
> his residence and the other on his cellular phone. Days before an interview
> with Fernandez had been published in which he alluded to signs of a dirty
> war in Mexico due to some actions in which the military had been involved.
>
> 2nd of October. Jose Lavanderos, a lawyer who is part of the defense team
> for presumed Zapatistas, received deaths threats by telephone.
>
> 1996
>
> 13th of January. One day before traveling to Washington to attend an
> audience with the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights to address
> issues at the Center, Rocio Culebro received death threat calls.
>
> 10th of August. Pilar Noriega and Digna Ochoa, members of the presumed
> Zapatista defense team, received written death threats with the following
> messages: ³All members of the PRODH will die, especially this pair of
> lawyers.²
>
> 7th of October. Threats were made against Noriega and Ochoa before they
> traveled to Washington to participate in audiences with the ICHR.²
>
> 9th of October. Threats were received against Victor Brenes, Jose
> Lavenderos, and Enrique Flora, members of the defense team for imprisoned
> Zapatistas, and David Fernandez, director of the Center.
>
> 1999
>
> 9th of August. Digna Ochoa is kidnapped outside of her home. She is held
> for around four hours.
>
> 3rd of September. Three threatening letters arrive at the Center.
>
> 8th of September. Four envelopes containing threats are found in the Center.
>
> 5th of October. Digna Ochoa finds her electoral credential, stolen from her
> on the day of her kidnapping, in her private residence.
>
> 13th of October. An anonymous bomb threat is found in the Center
> headquarters.
>
> 28th and 29th of October. The house of Digna Ochoa is broken into. She is
> blindfolded and subjected to an interrogation in which she is questions
> about the Center¹s supposed links to the EZLN, EPR and ERPI. On the same
> day the offices are broken into and a table cover on one of the desks the
> words ³Power of Suicide² are written in red.
>
> 17th of November. The International Court of Human Rights requires that the
> Mexican government adopt, without any delay, any means necessary to protect
> the lives and personal integrity of Ochoa and other members of the Center.
>
> 2000
>
> 31st of January. There are two more anonymous death threats against members
> of the Center. These are sent in the context of a visit to the ninth
> Military Region of Llano Grande, to verify the progress of the
> investigations regarding the assassinations of three Mixteco Indians and the
> rape of two indigenous women. In these days a hearing pertaining to the case
> of the two imprisoned ecologists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera was
> also to take place.
>
> August. Digna Ochoa travels to the United States in interest of her personal
> security.
>
> 25th of September. The PGR begins investigations into the threats.
>
> 2001
>
> March. Digna Ochoa returns to the country.
>
> 9th of May. The PGR notifies the Center that the previous investigation of
> this case has been put in the reserve archives with the intention of being
> reactivated if new evidence is found.
>
> 31st of May. The Mexican government informs the ICHR that it has adopted the
> recommended methods and asks that the application of the methods be
> suspended because the threats have not continued. Three months later it
> would reiterate its request.
>
> 22nd of August. The Court finds that the methods have attained their goal,
> because there has been no objection in removing them.
>
> 19th of October. Digna Ochoa is found dead.
>
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