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Murder of Mexican human-rights advocate demands U.S. response By
Jim Steitz The world lost one of its most talented and effective advocates for those that have no voice on Oct. 19. Digna Ochoa, an internationally known human rights attorney from Mexico, was assassinated. Digna worked with the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center in Mexico City until a year ago, when she formally separated from the Center after receiving death threats. She represented some of the most difficult and politically charged human rights cases in Mexico, many involving torture or murder by Mexico's military and security forces. Digna's work for the disenfranchised proved to be her undoing, as has happened to many other environmental, labor, and human-rights advocates who dare challenge the right-wing ruling class in developing countries, and sometimes even our own. A note found at the murder site read, in part, "If you continue, this will also happen to another. You have been advised. This is not a trick." Digna Ochoa's assassination ends any pretense of democratic reforms by our southern neighbor. Vicente Fox assumed Mexico's presidency last year, ending 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, with promises to clean up the nation's corruption, particularly cleaning up the impunity of Mexico's security forces. Ten months after assuming power, Fox's promises ring hollow. He has appointed a former army general as Federal Attorney General. He failed to implement a promised "truth commission" which would investigate past abuses of power, including over 500 "disappeared," the Latin-American euphemism for political kidnappings and killings. And despite earlier promises, Fox's administration has failed to liberate Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, grassroots farmer-activists whose defense of their forests against U.S. lumber giant Boise Cascade has brought them a multi-year prison term on fabricated drug charges. Digna was a true heroine. During her years as a human rights advocate, the 38-year-old Ochoa received numerous death threats, including a number of recent letters, yet she continued her work. A close colleague reported, "When she told me that she had received new threats I suggested that she file a formal complaint, that she publicize the letters. But the deception she felt from the justice system was overwhelming. 'Why?' she told me, 'nothing ever happens, a formal complaint won't accomplish anything.'" Another colleague affirmed the disposition of the Fox administration: "The official reaction has always been to treat us, the ones who are threatened, as the suspicious ones. They never followed up with any sort of investigation." Over the years the Justice Department of Mexico City conducted several half-hearted investigations, which led nowhere. This is not surprising, given an ex-army officer as Federal Attorney General. The army is widely recognized as among the worst violators of human rights, and Digna broke much new ground exposing army abuses. Her recent high-profile defense of Montiel and Cabrera may have been her final undoing. Montiel and Cabrera were instrumental in forcing Boise Cascade to abandon its destruction of old growth forests in the southern state of Guerrero. Montiel and Cabrera received the prestigious Goldman Award for their environmental work, and are internationally recognized as environmental heroes, even as they sit in jail. Digna exposed the use of torture by the army to extract "confessions" from the environmentalists, a common practice in Mexico. However, the Federal Attorney General refused to admit medical reports prepared by internationally recognized experts proving torture. Unfortunately, Montiel and Cabrera were only the latest in a long line of assaults, injustices, and murders committed against environmentalists worldwide by entrenched interests. Even in the United States, the FBI has used its criminal investigation powers to attack environmental groups for political purposes, and the new powers awarded the FBI and the CIA by the "anti-terrorism" legislation passed by Congress last week bode ill for progressive citizen activists of all stripes. It is long past time for the Bush administration to end military aid, sales and training for Mexican security forces and other abusers of human rights.Last year our State Department licensed over $240 million in military sales to Mexico, and our tax dollars funded over $16 million in outright grants and training. These programs should be terminated immediately. The Bush administration should also seek a full investigation, and protection of other human rights and environmental activists. The United States must also radically revamp its international lending and economic policies, and stop aiding and abetting corporations that trash the environment, abuse human rights, and evict indigenous communities. Digna's own words may offer us some guidance: "I've always felt anger at the suffering of others. For me, anger is energy, it's a force. If an act of injustice doesn't provoke anger in me, it could be seen as indifference, passivity. It's injustice that motivates us to do something, to take risks, knowing that if we don't, things will remain the same." The Bush administration should respond forcefully and quickly to the injustice of Digna's assassination. If grassroots activists cannot speak out on behalf of their neighbors and communities, any hope we have of forging a sustainable, equitable future on this Earth shall perish.
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