Veracruz still awaits justice – Information

For many Mexicans, that image epitomized the political cynicism that has prevailed in Mexico for decades. Time would reveal the possible origin of the gesture, one of the many that he often made in front of the cameras. Duarte, who is now in prison, sentenced in 2018 to nine years for the crimes of money laundering and criminal association, is waiting to sit on the bench for the crime of enforced disappearance, which contemplates penalties of up to 60 years in prison. The politician will possibly show a new, more sinister face.

Before being investigated by the diversion of almost 60,000 million pesos (2,587 million euros) of the public accounts in his Government, and being accused of infamies such as having bought false HIV tests for the population, Duarte presented himself as part of the “new generation of governors”, as the former president had coined it. Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), from a party historically related to corruption and authoritarianism, the PRI. He had had a meteoric political career.

He won the elections with almost 40,000 votes more than his predecessor. However, times were changing in the country. The violence increased due to the war against drugs, declared by the former Mexican president Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), and Veracruz would not be the exception. One of the most violent drug cartels operated in the state, declared as terrorist organization for the United States: Zetas.

In the early years, the constant policy was denial of cases of violence. They were minimized or notified late. The former governor went so far as to publicly declare in October 2014 that only “a frutsi and a few penguins” (drinks for children and sweet cupcakes) were stolen in his state. in his book Duarte, the perfect priista, the journalist Arturo Angel, documented cases of forced disappearance in the region and pointed out that at the end of the Veracruz politician’s administration, only 524 cases classified as disappearance were recorded. However, with the change of government, the new prosecutor recorded 3,600 complaints without investigating this crime.

Arturo Angel was behind the investigation that led to the fall of the governor, by documenting a network of shell companies that laundered more than 600 million pesos (25.77 million euros) extracted from state accounts through awarded contracts. The journalist from the digital media Animal Politico has been behind the case ever since. “Javier Duarte’s government in Veracruz became notable for corruption, but there was also violence and disappearances. One of the best organized groups of people looking for their disappeared relatives emerged in that state, it was Solecito”, account on the other end of the phone.

The groups that search for their disappeared

Associations of relatives of disappeared persons they have been the constant reminder that today the whereabouts of more than 90,000 people in Mexico are unknown. Of these, more than 5,000 disappeared in Veracruz. The colective Solecito brings together more than 300 relatives whose whereabouts are unknown in the municipality of the same name in the state. It was founded in 2013 by Lucy Diaz. “My son was kidnapped that year, and as a result of starting to look for him I see that there are women like me, who with many problems were looking for their children and who did not know how to do it. I felt a kind of moral obligation to support them,” says Díaz..

groups like Solecito They have promoted a fight so that the Mexican State takes their complaints seriously, investigates them and supports them with resources in the search for their relatives. In 2017 they managed to get Congress to approve a law on enforced disappearance and that the search system for missing persons be improved. For years, mothers have had to rely on their own means to find their children, sometimes even using their hands to dig in vacant lots without knowing if they will find their remains there.

Lucy Díaz says that, in 2016, at the end of Javier Duarte’s government, some men approached her during a protest on Mother’s Day and handed her some sheets. “It was a map of the Colinas de Santa Fe terrain, it had many crosses,” he narrates by phone. “The press at the time called it ‘a macabre gift.’ But it wasn’t, because they told us where they were.” In those lands, located at the entrance to the historic port of Veracruz, according to Díaz, they found more than 300 bodies in three years.

The case that links the former governor

At the beginning of 2016, a few months before Javier Duarte left office and fled to Guatemala, 19 bodies were found at the foot of a ravine. That gorge was known as La Aurora in the municipality of Xalapa. The relatives went to the site, but the state police did not let them enter. The official report of the State Prosecutor’s Office at that time counted only six bodies. The concealment was later revealed by the PAN Government of Miguel Ángel Yunes. Six former members of the Duarte executive were arrested and later released after posting bail. That accusation also weighed on Duarte, however, the approval of the extradition for that crime would have to go through the approval of Guatemala.

The reports also document that the victims had been kidnapped by state police, who were taken to the nearby police academy to be tortured and then executed in the ravine. Anais Palacios, member of the Mexican Institute of Human rights (IMDHD) in Veracruz has documented this and other cases in which the complicity of members of the state government during the years of Javier Duarte is evident. “There are testimonies that say that there was no forced disappearance that ended in an extrajudicial execution without the knowledge of the then secretary of public security, Arturo Bermúdez,” he explains.

Javier Duarte is awaiting trial for the events that occurred in the ravine during the years in which he governed the state. Meanwhile, the governor’s defense moves chips promoting amparos against the arrest warrant and seeking his release for good behavior. Arturo Ángel, who follows each judicial step, details that the documentation of the investigations in the cases of disappearance confirms “what the victims maintained, that it was a systematic operation of forced disappearance as if it were a security policy.”

The arrest warrant was approved by Guatemala in March 2021, According to a document from the Mexican Foreign Ministry, requested by Arturo Ángel. However, she was executed at the end of that year when Javier Duarte arrived in jail. Now, the first ex-governor tried for this crime against humanity, will wait from his cell to show a new face before hundreds of families of the disappeared in Veracruz who have waited more than nine years. for some form of justice to arrive.