mexnews: Lawyer Digna Ochoa Assassinated in Mexico City Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Milt Shapiro Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada Translated by irlandesa La Jornada Saturday, October 20, 2001 Human Rights Defender Digna Ochoa Assassinated In Her Office Angel Bola~os and Andrea Becerril Digna Ochoa y Pla'cido, human rights activist and lawyer, was assassinated yesterday in her office on Calle Zacatecas 31-A, in the Roma neighborhood. The incident provoked immediate indignation from different human rights organizations. Ochoa Pla'cido's body was found by one of the assistant lawyers in the office, Gerardo Gonza'lez, around 5:30 PM, with gunshots in the head and arms, apparently from a 22 caliber weapon. Next to her was found a written death threat against members of the Miguel Agusti'n Pro Human Rights Center. The Attorney General for the Federal District remained completely silent about the incident. The head of the department, Bernardo Ba'tiz, went to the crime scene about 10:30 PM, and he committed himself to doing everything necessary in order to locate those responsible. Gerardo Gonza'lez said that he had gone back to the office in order to pick up some documents at the request of Lamberto Gonza'lez, a partner of the victim, and of Pilar Noriega, who had stopped litigating a few days ago after having been named first visitor for the CDHDF [Federal District Human Rights Commission]. Ochoa's body was found in the waiting room, on the floor, with her head leaning against a chair and her face completely covered with blood. Gonza'lez said that he saw white powder, like a kind of talc, scattered about the rug, the chairs and the victim's clothing. The possibility that the lawyer had struggled with the killers has not been discounted, because the headband she had been wearing in the morning had also been thrown onto the rug. Edgar Corte's, the president of the Center, demanded that authorities open an in-depth investigation, because, ever since 1996, when threats against the organization first began, nothing had been done. The greatest number of threats were received in 1996 and 1997 against the lawyer and other members of Pro, such as Enrique Flota and Pilar Noriega, who were handling the cases of the imprisoned zapatista presuntos at that time. In 1999 and 2000 there were at least three investigations in the PGJDF [Federal District Department of Justice], which had been compiled into one single file, and another for the kidnapping of Ochoa in her own home. "What's terrible is that these denuncias didn't get anywhere. Now, after Digna Ochoa's death, we want it to really be investigated in-depth," he demanded. He was concerned by the fact that a new note, with death threats against Center members, was found next to the body. He recalled that Ochoa had separated from the Center a year ago, having decided to practice independently, and that her most important current case was that of the Guerrero ecologist prisoners, although she had also decided to take back up those issues which Pilar Noriega had been dealing with. Adria'n Rami'rez Lo'pez, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights, recalled the kidnapping attempt against Digna Ochoa: in October 1999 several individuals entered her home, gagged her, covered her eyes and interrogated her for approximately nine hours. They later left her, with her hands and feet bound, on her bed, along with a tank of open gas. She managed to untie herself and tried to use the telephone, but the line had been cut. The individuals who attacked her asked her questions about Pro's activities and about alleged contacts in the states of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla and Oaxaca, about EZLN and EPR safe houses and about Comandantes Antonio and Aurora of the ERPI. "We also remembered that she was now seeing to the cases of the Cerezo Contreras brothers, who are accused of belonging to the FARP, and who were detained after the blasts at the Banamex branches. Their first hearing was for October 22. It can't be stated that it's related to the homicide, but we're just saying that there's that coincidence. That she was participating in the legal defense along with Ba'rbara Zamora," he said. The body was taken to the amphitheater of Agency 4 of the Public Ministry, and the corresponding investigation was opened in Agency 3, where Gerardo Gonza'lez, and other persons who knew the lawyer closely, were still giving statements at the time this edition was going to press. They were providing information that might lead to those responsible. It should be noted that the president of the CDHDF, Emilio Alvarez Icaza, went to the site of the incidents. He told the prosecutor that the organization would be following the investigations closely. Benito Miro'n Lince, Under Secretary for Labor for the GDF, who was leader of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation, and Eduardo Miranda, of the Lawyers' Union, also were present. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-10.22.01-18:32:38-11134