Teacher's death prompts investigations

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 13, 1995 by John (American tribal leader) Ross

Dark side of justice

Who killed Cesar Guzman? Many fingers point to those who investigated his death -- in particular, ex-military man and ex-commander of the judicial police, Elogio Melchor, known as "El Guerro," who was present at dances that Guzman attended that night in the farming hamlets of Amate and Malpica. In Melchor's company was local tavern proprietor Filemon Herrera, identified as a madrina of the judicial police. Madrinas function a informants in the judicial police structure.

When members of the international commission visited Herrera's cantina, located about 150 yards from where Guzman's body was found, they were greeted by three intoxicated members of Putla's four-man judicial police force.

The death of Guzman unmasks the dark side of how justice is meted out in Putla and other remote Oaxaca municipalities. Those interviewed by the police seem to be included in the case file merely to justify preconceived conclusions that Guzman's death was accidental. Many witnesses -- as many as 10 -- have never been deposed.

Asked if townspeople were fearful to make declarations to the judiciales, Julian Bautista, the local public justice ministry official, responded that maybe they were fearful because they were delinquents. Bautista also complained that human rights groups are making it difficult for the judicial police to do their job. "We are prohibited from interrogating the guilty parties," he said. Obtaining confessions by torture and fabricating guilty parties, fabricando culpables, is not an unusual practice of federal and state judicial police agents.

According to Bautista, there are 12 to 15 murders a month in. the Putla district. Less than one in 10 is ever resolved.

Guzman's death has stiffened the resolve of those who oppose the justice system here. Jorge Mendoza, who heads the ecology group, is adamant: "We never thought for a minute that Cesar's death was an accident."

Scared but not leaving

Immediately after his death, Guzman's supporters pieced together the Frente Civico, or Civic Front, to demand an honest investigation. After four months, their banners still fly from the kiosk in Putla's plaza. The Civic Front encompasses 14 groups, ranging from the Teachers Union to the Chamber of Commerce to the local gay community to militant supporters of the Zapatistas. "I'm scared. They could kill me, too," Mendoza, who regularly speaks out against the Alonso family, recently told a meeting in the local movie theater. "But I'm not going to run away. ... I'm stayjng right here in Putla."

Section 22 is currently investigating at least 86 unresolved homicides of Oaxaca teachers. Heading these investigations is Francisco Curreno, who has been incorporated into the state attorney general's office as special prosecutor in the Guzman case. "We fought for this status. This is a conquest, not a gift from the government," says Curreno, promising a start from-scratch, independent investigation of Guzman's death. Nonetheless, Curreno's workload is not a light one. Just as the special prosecutor plunged into the Guzman mystery, two more maestros were murdered along the Oaxaca coast.