In the 14 years that I have lived in México,
I have been struck by the innovative use of the term "suicide" to classify
sensitive deaths. Some cases in point:
· A political party chief was found in his office shot to death. This
was ruled a suicide. He had shot himself in the chest, three times . . .
each a fatal shot.
· A man that was embroiled in a financial scandal that went up to very
important people. Found in his car and ruled a suicide He had stabbed
himself more than twenty times, with no wounds that were fatal alone. He
finally bled to death.
· A brother of a past Mexican president was found in his car with a
plastic bag over his head and had suffocated. This was immediately ruled a
suicide, but later was classed as a coercion from others to force
information that had gone too far. It is possible that the reclassification
of this case was due to the fact that the victim's brother, an ex-president
who still wields enormous power in México.
What brings the above to mind is a new book titled "Betrayed: The
assassination of Digna Ochoa", by Linda Diebel and reviewed by Diana Anhalt
for The Herald México.
I have written about this case a number of times in the past, but
Diebel goes into more detail than ever before.
Briefly, Ochoa was a former Catholic nun and later lawyer who devoted
her life to the defense of those, mainly the very poor, that were being
victimized by the powerful. At the time, she was working for the indigenous
in western México who were being victimized by the logging interests. If the
people objected to the rape of their land, they were being thrown into jail
on trumped up charges, or worse.
Ochoa had a history as a no-nonsense defender of the rights of the
downtrodden. She had been forced to flee México for a time because of
threats, beatings, tailings, raped and nearly killed. After she returned to
México, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered México to furnish
protection for her. Two months before her death, the then new Fox
administration found a loophole in that order and removed protection. At the
time of her death, Ochoa was working on a case, an illegal logging issue, of
two imprisoned activist campesinos that had been convicted on
trumped up charges that sparked international outrage.
She was found on a sofa in her office in what appeared to be an
"arranged" position. The office showed signs of a struggle. Three shots had
been fired from a pistol. One shot was fired at random in the room. One shot
went into her left thigh with no powder residue. One shot went into her left
temple. A threatening note was found on her desk.
She was wearing oversized rubber gloves filled with powder. The
Metropolitan police of the Federal District (México City) ruled the death
suicide. They said that the first two shots were fired by her to "test" the
gun. And it has been observed that the fatal shot could only have been
delivered if the right-handed Ochoa held the gun upside down and fired
left-handed. She was quickly buried.
After great outcries at the obvious sham investigation, there were four
more investigations conducted over 22 months after Ochoa's death, including
exhumation. But the verdict was always the same; suicide.
We note that it was the Fox administration (the business friendly PAN)
that pulled Ochoa's protection. But remember that the city administration
was the PRD, the opposition "peoples" party that ran the investigations and
made the suicide ruling.
The two campesinos that Ochoa had been working for were
finally freed by Fox after the loud worldwide outcry. But Fox didn't have
the courage to pardon them; he freed them on "humanitarian" reasons of poor
health.
It is widely believed that the real culprits are to be found in the
illegal lumber industry, the western state's political structure and the
Mexican army. The army's abuse of the people in that area is well known.
But power rules in México.
The above is the reason that the average Mexican, on being told by the
government that the sun would rise in the East tomorrow, would be looking
West in the morning.
As a last note to this sad tale, this writer wonders why the Catholic
Church would not consider Ochoa for sainthood. If there were anyone who
deserves sainthood, Ochoa does.
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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/)
contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at:
R1041643422@aol.com
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com