Republican News · Thursday 28 February 2002

Mexico's Rosemary Nelson

BY FERN LANE

On 19 October 2001, Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa was murdered. She had represented environmentalists in Guerrero State who were disrupting the logging industry and who had been subjected to harassment, imprisonment and, on occasion, murder, by state forces.

Two of her clients were Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. In May 1999, they were captured by the Mexican Army in Guerrero. Targeted by local authorities because they opposed wildcat logging, they were held and tortured over several days until they "confessed" to marijuana cultivation and illegal arms possession. Despite clear evidence that the men were forced to confess and that evidence was planted, they were convicted of narcotics and weapons charges and sentenced to prison, where they remained for over two years in spite of court appeals and other legal interventions. They were kept in jail even after Mexico's own official human rights commission found that soldiers illegally detained and tortured them, and planted evidence. They were finally released in November last year, shortly after Digna Ochoa was murdered.

In a case that bears striking similarities to that of Rosemary Nelson, Digna Ochoa, before she was killed, was repeatedly threatened in apparent retaliation for her work in this and other high profile cases in which she accused security forces of abusive practices. Other lawyers who currently represent environmentalists continue to receive death threats.

It took the Mexican authorities some three months - until mid-January this year - to make a proper start to the investigation into Digna's killing. They had also not carried out any investigation into the threats consistently made against her. That delay was both tragic and costly. Along with colleagues and other Mexican human rights defenders, Digna had been targeted since at least 1996. Had the authorities undertaken proper investigations into the many antecedents to her murder, it is possible Digna would be alive today. She repeatedly appealed to authorities to find and bring her attackers to justice. Responsibility for this failure must be shared widely. The Mexico City Attorney General's office made inadequate efforts following extremely serious attacks against Digna (including an all-night ordeal in which she was held captive in her home in October 1999 and nearly killed), prompting Digna to turn in frustration to the Federal Attorney General's office - which ultimately closed the file on the case without identifying suspects or pressing charges.

The case of Digna Ochoa has been repeatedly highlighted by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre, who say that Digna's murder, together with the treatment of the environmentalists Montiel and Cabrera, illustrates how Mexican criminal justice "can be used to put a façade of legality on injustices against persons targeted by authorities for political or other illegitimate reasons".

Sadly, they say, many others remain in Mexico's prisons under similar circumstances. "Having taken an important step in releasing the environmentalists," they say, "Mexican President Vicente Fox should now turn his attention to examining and resolving other outstanding cases, ensuring those responsible for misdeeds in these cases are prosecuted and taking urgent measures to reform Mexican criminal justice so that such injustices are not repeated."