1/27/03 - Update on the Digna Ochoa Investigation: IAHRC Investigators Arrive in Mexico

Dear friends,

We would like to inform you of the most recent turn of events in the investigation into Digna Ochoa y Plácido's death.

As you know, Ms. Ochoa was found shot to death in her office in Mexico City on October 19, 2001. One year and three months have passed since her death, and little progress has been made in the nvestigation.

After a second Mexico City investigation team was dismissed from the case due to controversial preliminary conclusions and ethical breaches, Mexico City's Attorney General assigned an independent special prosecutor, Margarita Guerra, to the case in August of 2002.

Ms. Guerra took over the case promising to carry out a thorough investigation into all established lines of inquiry, end ethical breaches, and invite a team of foreign independent experts to evaluate investigation proceedings to date.

Resulting from a March 2002 petition to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IAHRC), the team of three experts arrived to Mexico City on January 11, 2003. Dr. María Dolores Morcillo Méndez is a Colombian specialist in forensic pathology with experience in cases regarding human rights violations; Dr. Alan John Voth is a Canadian expert in ballistics, with vast experience in working on investigating violent deaths by firearms; and Dr. Pedro Díaz Romero, who carried out a similar evaluation of the investigation in early 2002, will serve as an expert in criminalistics as well as the team coordinator.

In accordance with the work plan and the terms of reference approved by the IACHR, during their stay the experts will carry out the technical verification of the investigation case file contents in collaboration with the Special Prosecutor Margarita Guerra, her team of experts and the Attorney General’s Office of the Federal District (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal, PGJDF) itself. After their visit, the experts will have a time period in which to draft and submit their reports, which will then be compiled into one single report by Dr. Díaz Romero. Dr. Díaz, as the project coordinator, is to submit the aforementioned report to the IACHR within a three-month period.

Though the team's findings will have no legal bearing in the case, it is our hope that the team will carry out a thorough and objective evaluation of the investigation findings and that their report will serve to hold the Mexican government accountable to its promise for a full, impartial investigation into Ms. Ochoa's death and to punish those responsible. If such an evaluation is not conducted, the efficacy of the report will be questioned, and it could have the opposite effect by validating the conclusions of an incomplete, partial, or unethical investigation.

Please find below an article from La Jornada regarding the experts arrival to Mexico.
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Team from the IACHR Begins to Verify Investigation into Digna Ochoa Case In three months the team will submit its report on the investigation carried out by the Mexican government.

La Jornada
January 11, 2003
Claudia Herrera Beltrán

Today experts from the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR),

Pedro Díaz Romero, María Dolores Morcillo y Alan John Voth, begin their work in Mexico to review the evidence and documentation contained in the case file regarding the death of lawyer Digna Ochoa. The international team will determine if the forensic and ballistic tests as well as the criminology applied in the case conform to relevant international standards, and the team will have a three months to submit it’s findings to the IAHCR.

Upon announcing the arrival of the international experts, the President of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (ProDH), Edgar Cortez, demanded a quick resolution of the case regarding Ms. Ochoa’s death, which occurred on October 19, 2001, as well as guarantees that any investigation irregularities will be penalized.

The ProDH affirmed that Morcillo Méndez is a Colombian specialist in forensic pathology with experience in cases involving human rights abuses, and that Alan John Voth is a Canadian expert in ballistics with broad experience in investigations into violent deaths involving fire arms. Díaz Romero, who has previously been involved in the case, will have dual functions as the expert in criminology as well as the project coordinator. He will be responsible for submitting the final report to the IACHR.

According to a Dpa wire, the IACHR in Washington declared that the experts will not make determinations regarding the circumstances under which the human rights defender died nor will they identify or hand down a decision regarding those responsible, which are the “exclusive responsibility of the Mexican authorities.”

Juan Méndez, President of the IACHR, also stated that the experts will not make declarations “because their task is limited to technical verification and because it is an ongoing case about which the IACHR has not yet released its own statement.”

Edgar Cortez reiterated his stance that the ProDH will only accept a conclusion to the investigation that is based upon solid and convincing evidence, that has been verified by independent experts, and that is consistent with the context in which the crime occurred.

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