Baja Bernie - 5-3-2006 at 08:08 PM
May 3, 2006
Tijuana News
Cover-Up Eyed in Border Teen's Murder
In response to a complaint from a murdered teen-age girl's
parents, the Baja California Attorney General for Human
Rights (PDH) recommended on April 20 that sanctions be
levied against officials from the Baja California Office of
the Attorney General (PJE) for negligence. The
recommendation stems from the December 2005 murder of 15-
year-old Tijuana high school student Sara BeN-zir Chagoya
Ruiz, who was brutally beaten and thrown from a moving
vehicle in front of the El Pueblo shopping center. BeN-zir
later died from her injuries.
In a report, the PDH noted that evidence exists of official
foot-dragging in bringing to justice to the prime suspect
BeN-zir's slaying, Fernando Emmanuel Valencia Perez.
According to the PDH, hair found in Valencia's vehicle last
December was positively identified by a state criminal
laboratory as belonging to BeN-zir, but the sample was
archived without further action taken against the suspect.
A nephew of Baja California state judge Efrain Murillo,
Valencia was questioned last December but reportedly has
since left Tijuana.
Sara Elena Ruiz Meza, the mother of Sara BeN-zir, said a
second hair sample from Valencia's vehicle that was
independently tested by a San Diego laboratory and
confirmed as belonging to her daughter is in the possession
of the PDH. The murder victim's father, Manuel Chagoya
Flores, said Valencia should be charged with his daughter's
murder. BeN-zir's murder provoked popular outrage in
Tijuana, sparking demonstrations by the teenage girl's
classmates and others. Addressing 1,500 protestors who
gathered to protest violence in Tijuana last January,
Chagoya contended that PJE officials confidently assured
that the murder was close to being resolved but then pulled
back.
"The investigator pompously declared to the media that the
case was 80 percent resolved, with a name and a face (of a
suspect) said Chagoya , "...when suddenly, the
investigation stopped and we met with the attorney general
and he told us and everyone else concerned, that the case
was only 50 percent (resolved.) Chagoya added that his
family's initial trust in the authorities was so great that
the family cremated Sara's body certain the investigation
was on the verge of being resolved.
In its report, the PDH also recommended that the BeN-zir
murder case be turned over for investigation to the new
federal special prosecutor for women's homicides headed by
Alicia Perez. The human rights agency's recommendations can
be accepted or rejected by the PJE, but the state's
position is still not publicly known. Nor are the names of
the officials cited for alleged negligence by the PDH. A
high-profile murder, the BeN-zir case shares similarities
with many of the Ciudad Juarez women's murder
investigations in the sense that key evidence was lost or
hidden and suspects allowed to get away.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
[Edited on 5-4-2006 by Baja Bernie]
lizard lips - 5-7-2006 at 01:25 PM
This just makes me sick. It will never end. You can actually get away with murder or anything in Mexico if you know the right people.....or the U.S.
asl OJ
Sharksbaja - 5-7-2006 at 02:18 PM
Me too!:
barf:
vandenberg - 5-7-2006 at 03:28 PM
Not only in Mexico.
Look at O.J and Robert Blake.
Helps to have money and the right people.