Federal officials to investigate 11 more killings in Juarez(Mexico)

Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | November 28, 2003

[SwinneySwitch]

MEXICO CITY- Federal officials plan to investigate 11 more killings in the border city of Juarez, where local prosecutors say nearly 100 women have been murdered in a similar manner.

In a statement sent out early Friday, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said his office would take over investigating the 11 cases because they may have involved federal offenses. He did not elaborate.

Local prosecutors say the nearly 100 killings, which have taken place in the last decade, appear to involve a similar pattern of sexual abuse or mutilation.

The cases have long fallen under the jurisdiction of local prosecutors. But Macedo's office took over 14 of the investigations earlier this year after uncovering evidence of organized crime _ a federal offense.

Speaking to federal lawmakers, Macedo called on officials to "optimize" coordination between federal, state and local authorities in an effort to help solve the Juarez murders.

His office has reviewed 227 killings in Ciudad Juarez in the past 10 years, but found evidence to take over only 25 cases.

The Attorney General's statement also said Macedo's office was investigating eight different theories into the 1993 killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, but it didn't give any details.

Members of President Vicente Fox's National Action party have asked Macedo to clarify the details of Posadas' death. Some National Action officials insist Posadas was killed as part of an elaborate government conspiracy.

However, a series of federal investigations have concluded that drug traffickers involved in a chaotic shootout at the Guadalajara airport mistook the cardinal for a rival and shot him as he stepped out of his car.

[SwinneySwitch]

Mexican serial killers?

[Irene Adler]

There was an aricle on this series of unsolved murders in the Sept. 29th New Yorker. I am not usually fond of the New Yorker which Mr. Adler subscribes to. However, it does have very interesting true crime articles and science articles from time to time. The one about the Mexican murders of women and young girls was one such. It did not offer any conclusions, however, because the crimes are still going on. However, it did give a chilling portrait of Mexican "justice" at work (people get arrested and tortured into signing confessions for some of the murders every so often according to the article, and their trials are semi-secret proceedings with no juries, only judges). I recommend the article.

[Irene Adler]

Too many "howevers," however.

[FrogMom]

In a statement sent out early Friday, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said his office would take over investigating the 11 cases because they may have involved federal offenses. He did not elaborate.

Although an unproven science, Attorney General Rafael Macedo has decided to use the new-fangled finger printing techniques widely used in the US since the 19th(?) century to attempt to capture the killer.