Prosecutor targets crimes against women in Juarez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The special prosecutor for crimes against women in Ciudad Juarez says the office has whittled down the number of unsolved cases of missing women from 150 to 85 — a figure questioned by critics in this city of 1.5 million people across the border from El Paso.

"This is a full frontal assault on these crimes," said Refugio Jáuregui Venegas, the special prosecutor who took the helm when the office was created in March 2012.

It's a tough job in the border city that is infamous for the murders and disappearances of hundreds of women over the past two decades.

The special prosecutor is part of the Center for Justice created after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in 2009 that Mexico failed to investigate the murders of eight young women whose bodies were found dumped in a cotton field.

Relatives of three of the murdered women took their case before the court authorities, arguing the government did little to investigate or prosecute crimes against women.

The special prosecutor is now examining cases from 1995 to the present.

"Gaining confidence is like climbing stairs; losing it like an escalator," Jauregui Venegas said.

Relatives of missing or murdered girls and women are skeptical after struggling for years to get help from authorities they characterize as incompetent, corrupt... or both.

"They're accomplices in the disappearances of girls in Juarez, "said Jose Luis Castillo, father of a missing teen.

"My daughter — like many other girls — disappeared in the heart of the city," Castillo said.

Esmeralda Castillo, 13, vanished on the way to school in broad daylight five years ago. Her father has been trying to find her since then, but said he's received little help from authorities.

"Instead of investigating, they come and ask us what new information we have uncovered," Castillo said.

He and other parents say they suspect a human trafficking ring that preys on young girls is behind the abductions in the border city.

On a recent day, Castillo stood outside the Chihuahua Attorney General's office holding a banner with a photo of his daughter's face, and a reward for information about her location.

The reward of three million pesos is the equivalent of $230,000, and a first for a missing girl in Ciudad Juarez.

Mexico's federal government has also created its own nationwide Amber Alert. The state of Chihuahua added the "Protocolo Alba," to help find a woman or girl who is reported missing.

"Immediately we begin to look for her," Jauregui Venegas said.

He credits Protocol Alba for helping locate 283 missing girls and women this past year. Eight are still missing.

"In 98 percent of the cases, they are found," Jauregui Venegas, although not all are found alive.

Authorities discovered the body of Cristal Fernandez Pinela, 29, buried in a backyard. Police arrested her ex-husband and charged him the same week she disappeared.

Alberto Hernandez Campa, 35, confessed to beating Fernandez to death with a hammer, according to police. When the suspect was presented to media he said he killed her because he "got angry."

Along with a crackdown on deadly domestic violence, the special prosecutor for crimes against women said his office has brought to justice "serial rapists, serial killers," and broken up bands of human traffickers.

Among the cases, a traffic cop who was sentenced to 70 years for raping and murdering two women. Authorities suspect he is responsible for other killings.

But for many Mexicans, justice is elusive, according to organizations that work with victims and families of murdered and disappeared women.

"For every ten cases we bring them, one gets resolved," said Irma Guadalupe Casas Franco, of Casa Amiga Esther Chavez Cano.

She and other critics question the statistics used by the special prosecutor because they have not been allowed to see case files or other data that shows women have been found or murders solved.

"It's really not true," Casas Franco said.

Even so, she says the Center for Justice and the special prosecutor's office is a hard-fought gain.

Recently, the special prosecutor met with a group of relatives of missing girls and women who filled a conference room. For several hours they discussed their concerns and any new developments.

"They're supporting us, and I hope that continues," said Perla Reyes Loya, the mother of a missing teen who attended the meeting.

Her 13-year0old daughter vanished nearly two years ago downtown in the same area where other teenage girls also went missing.

"We need that support to keep looking for them," Reyes Loya said.