In Juarez, Expiring Justice

Flor Rocío Munguía González, the special prosecutor for what has become known as the femicides in Juarez, said in an interview that such offenses are "things of the past" and that she has more than tripled her investigative staff to solve old cases before the time limits expire and to track down those responsible for the ongoing killings of women in Juarez.

"I take great satisfaction in our efforts -- we're doing everything we can," said Munguía González, who has been in office since February 2006.

After seeing eight special prosecutors come and go with no results, local activists are not impressed. Maureen Meyer, a WOLA analyst, said that a special federal investigator had found that 130 public officials had either been negligent or abused their authority during the murder investigations, but none has been disciplined.

"There's a real failure to hold them accountable," Meyer said in an interview.

Maynez, the criminologist, said he believes a powerful network of police, municipal officials and organized crime figures still protects the killers. He resigned from the job for a short time, after being asked to help frame two bus drivers in one of the cases. He refused, but the two men were arrested anyway. One died in suspicious circumstances during a jailhouse surgery. The other was released after testifying that he had been tortured by police into confessing.

An attorney for the bus drivers was killed by Chihuahua state police in a drive-by shooting in 2005, four days after vowing to file a corruption complaint. The police said the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.

Skepticism is growing as the Argentine forensics team nears the conclusion of its inquiry. The team has discovered that forensics officials in Ciudad Juarez boiled the corpses of some victims, destroying crucial DNA. The group also has found that the families of at least three victims received the wrong bodies for burial.

"The authorities just sealed the coffins and told the families not to ask any questions," said Doretti, the lead forensics investigator.

The Juarez families, Doretti said, have insisted that no evidence be sent to Mexican laboratories. Instead, Doretti has sent samples to a U.S. lab; she is expecting results soon.

The new forensic evidence and the approach of the statute of limitations deadlines are the sorts of developments that once would have prompted demonstrations in downtown Juarez. But the mothers who for years have pleaded for justice are exhausted, aging and in poor health.

The case of Silvia Morales, who was killed when she was 16, will expire in less than two years. Her mother, Ramona Morales, had been one of the most vocal critics in a protest movement of victim relatives, but is now suffering from diabetes and a bad knee.

"I can't do it anymore," she said one recent afternoon, tears trickling down her face.

Eva Arce, whose daughter Silvia Arce disappeared in 1998, was twice beaten by thugs after demonstrations demanding justice. She spends her days clipping newspaper articles about a new generation of murdered women in Juarez and writing poems.

"A tortured soul pours from a river of blood," she said one recent afternoon, reading from her notebook.

That same day, the newspaper El Norte of Ciudad Juarez carried a photograph of a pretty, dark-haired young woman. She didn't look so different from Silvia Arce or Silvia Morales or Guadalupe Ivonne Salas. The caption read: "Edith Aranda Longoria, 729 days since she was last seen."