Human rights officials in Mexico City have concluded that authorities in the country’s capital failed to properly investigate one of the capital’s most notorious recent crimes, instead launching an “inadequate” inquiry which failed to exhaust all possible leads.
The murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, activist Nadia Vera and three other women in a Mexico City apartment in July 2015 scandalised the country, especially as it was revealed that Espinosa and Vera had sought refuge in the capital after fleeing death threats in the eastern state of Veracruz.
Mile Virginia Martín, a Colombian national and aspiring model; Alejandra Negrete, a domestic worker; and student makeup artist Yesenia Quiróz were also murdered.
“From the start, the protocols for each of the crimes have not been followed, in spite of the Mexico City mayor instructing that all lines of investigation be opened,” said Perla Gómez, president of the Mexico City human rights commission, an autonomous government agency.
“A special line of investigation was not established for the clarification of the facts … that could have been been for motives of the victims’ special characteristics such as gender, journalism duties and [their defence of] human rights,” Gómez said on Wednesday.
From the start, details from the case files were leaked, such as the victims’ personal drug consumption and suggestions that one of them was somehow involved in drug dealing and sex work.
The leaks portrayed the victims as “responsible for what happened,” Gómez said.
The murders occurred mid-afternoon in an apartment in the middle-class neighbourhood of Colonia Narvarte in a period of barely 40 minutes, investigators said. A suspect arrested for the crime said he worked with two accomplices, including a person who juggled for coins in intersections and a former police officer who guarded parked cars for tips.
Family members and lawyers for the victims say the investigation has stalled. In a Thursday press conference they accused prosecutors of “accumulating paper,” while failing to pursue all leads to their proper conclusion.
“What is the only explanation? Absolute negligence or the covering up of the truth and all that is behind this crime,” said Leopoldo Maldonado, a lawyer with press freedom organisation Article 19.
Espinosa and Vera came to Mexico City from Veracruz after suffering threats in a state where some 17 journalists were murdered during the 2010 to 2016 administration of then-governor Javier Duarte – currently detained in Guatemala and accused of misappropriating public money in Mexico.
Before her death, Vera had said if anything happened to her she would hold Duarte responsible. Lawyers working on Espinosa’s case say his work as a photojournalist – which portrayed the portly Duarte unflatteringly – has not been properly pursued as a possible motive.
Administrations in Mexico City have attempted to promote the city as a haven from the violence and impunity which has afflicted much of the country. Journalists from outlying states have often sought shelter in the capital when under threat.
“The great myth that crashed [with the release of the report] was the myth that Mexico City was a refuge for journalists and defenders of human rights,” Maldonado said.
