The News Mexico
March 21, 2002
By By Cynthia Hawes and Conrad Fox

The attorney representing the family of murdered human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa received a death threat Monday, a week after she accused the city police handling the Ochoa investigation of incompetence

The threat arrived by email, and resembled the many threats Ochoa herself had received before she was murdered Oct. 19.

The message was not written in full sentences but contained scattered words, including "car crash," "accident," "lawyer" and "urgent." A letter found in the office where Ochoa was killed used a similar format, with threatening words cut from a newspaper pasted across a page.

"We are worried about the similarity in the messages," Zamora told TheNewsMexico.com, sounding less shaken than disgusted. She said that "lawyer" could refer not only to her, but to Pilar Noriega, attorney with the Mexico City Human Rights Commission and former colleague of both Ochoa and Zamora.

All three lawyers received numerous death threats in the past for their involvement in politically sensitive cases. Monday's message was the first threat against Zamora since Ochoa was found shot to death in her Mexico City office.

The police investigation into Ochoa's death has so far proved fruitless but many suspect the military was involved. Many of Ochoa's cases, including the defense of accused Zapatista rebels, brought her up against members of the powerful military establishment. One of these was current federal attorney general and former army prosecutor, Rafael Macedo de la Concha.

Last week, a local newspaper published information leaked from the Ochoa investigation that suggested the police considered suicide the most likely explanation for her death. The story unleashed a storm of controversy, with human rights groups calling the leak a further sign of incompetence in the handling of an investigation that seems to be going nowhere.

There were also suggestions that a suicide verdict might be politically expedient for the government.

"With a suicide there are no culprits," Zamora told TheNewsMexico.com.

City Attorney General Bernardo Batiz denied the accusation, calling the anonymous police investigator who revealed facts to the newspaper a "traitor" and "mercenary." He admitted the police was considering the possibility of suicide in the Ochoa case, but that it was only one of many lines of investigation.

The day after the story was published, Zamora accompanied Ochoa's family in accusing the police of dragging its feet in the investigation. She said the newspaper's source within the investigation had probably leaked the information for financial benefit.

She noted the police investigation into threats Ochoa received months before her death never made any progress and was quickly filed.

She did not, however, go as far as Ochoa's brother, Jesus Ochoa, who said Batiz had "come up against powerful political interests within the government" that wanted to sidetrack the investigation.

Zamora told TheNewsMexico.com she has reported the threat to the police.