Federal police end investigation of Juárez killings

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

El Paso Times

Three years ago, when Mexican federal police said they would help solve more than a dozen cases of young women killed in Juárez, victims' families and advocates hoped justice at last would be done. For years, the cases had been plagued by allegations of state police corruption and incompetence.

But late last month, federal officials quietly closed their inquiry without making any arrests, and they gave the 14 cases they had investigated back to state authorities, leaving relatives with little hope the killings will ever be solved.

The victims' families weren't even told the federal investigation had been closed; they read about it in the local newspaper.

"It fills me with rage, with a feeling of impotence, because they never investigated anything," said Josefina Gonzalez. The remains of her 20-year-old daughter were found with those of seven other young women in 2001.

In addition to those eight killings, federal authorities dropped investigations into the slayings of six teenagers, ages 15 to 18. They were among about 100 young women who were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in the desert outside Juárez since 1993.

The Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said their federal counterparts had returned the cases because they didn't find evidence of a federal crime such as a tie to organized crime or organ trafficking.