Mexican lawyer's death seen tied to logging fight
Copyright 2001 Reuters
November 8, 2001
MEXICO CITY - The killing last month of top Mexican rights lawyer Digna Ochoa is probably linked to a fierce battle between loggers and ecologists in the western state of Guerrero, Mexico City Prosecutor Bernardo Batiz said this week.
Ochoa was found shot to death in her private office in Mexico City on Oct. 19. She had won international acclaim for defending the poor and marginalized in Mexico, including two peasant ecologists from Guerrero widely seen as political prisoners.
"The lines of inquiry are pointing toward the state of Guerrero, toward the conflicts of the peasant farmers with logging groups," Batiz told reporters.
Ochoa was involved in the case of the two farmers, Teodoro Cabrera and Rodolfo Montiel, until mid-2000, when she left the Pro Juarez human rights center that is defending them.
In May 1999, Montiel was imprisoned for seven years on marijuana and gun charges and Cabrera received a 10-year sentence on gun charges. The two had founded a peasant environmental group fighting logging in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
Rights activists have rallied to their cause and say the men are being persecuted by powerful local bosses who are linked to illegal logging groups and who hold sway over local courts.
But Batiz refused to point the finger at possible suspects. He was due to hand over a file on the investigation's progress to President Vicente Fox later this week.
The ecologists' lawyers accused the army of torturing their clients and extracting false confessions out of them under duress. Ochoa and her co-workers at Pro Juarez were harassed and received death threats during the case.
The U.S. and French governments and rights organizations from around the world have condemned Ochoa's murder and urged Fox to bring those responsible to justice quickly.