Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: A10
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico+Under+Siege

MOTHER SLAIN AT ANTI-CRIME VIGIL IN CHIHUAHUA

A Woman Protesting the Release of Her Child's Suspected Killer Is 
Chased and Shot.

Outraged when judges freed the main suspect in her daughter's 
killing, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz launched a one-woman protest across 
the street from government offices in northern Mexico.

Now she is dead too.

In a brazen killing caught on video, a gunman chased Escobedo and 
shot her at close range Thursday night in front of the governor's 
office building in the capital of Chihuahua state.

The slaying drew condemnations from politicians and human rights 
activists and appeared to be fresh evidence of the impunity with 
which criminals operate across much of Mexico.

Amnesty International blamed "the negligence of state and federal 
authorities" for what it called reprisal attacks against activists 
and relatives of crime victims. "The deficiencies of the judicial 
system in cases of murdered women and girls have been demonstrated 
once again," the group said in a statement Friday.

Escobedo's 16-year-old daughter, Rubi Frayre, was slain and 
dismembered in 2008. The main suspect was her live-in boyfriend, 
Sergio Barraza, who was captured a year later in the state of Zacatecas.

Although Barraza confessed to the killing, he was exonerated in May 
by a three-judge panel that found insufficient evidence after a 
U.S.-style trial with oral arguments in the state capital, also 
called Chihuahua. Another court reversed the verdict, finding Barraza 
guilty, but he remains at large.

Escobedo loudly denounced the first court's ruling and has begged 
state authorities for justice. This month, she planted herself in 
front of the governor's office.

She had said she received threats from Barraza and his family but 
refused to hide.

"What's the government waiting for -- that he come and finish me?" 
Escobedo said in an interview outside the governor's palace that was 
posted on a website. "Then let him kill me, but here in front to see 
if it makes them ashamed."

Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte said Escobedo had gathered evidence that 
Barraza was in Zacatecas with members of the Zetas drug gang. 
Authorities indicated that Barraza was a suspect in the mother's slaying.

Duarte said he would seek the removal of the three judges in the case 
and ask to have them stripped of immunity from possible prosecution.

"He confessed to the killing and reported the place where the remains 
of Mrs. Escobedo's daughter could be found. This is what no one can 
understand -- the irresponsibility of these judges who set free a 
highly dangerous subject," Duarte said in a radio interview.

The video, aired on Mexican television, shows a man in dark clothing 
chasing Escobedo in the darkness as she sprints across the street 
toward the governor's office, which was closed at the time. Escobedo 
flops to the sidewalk as the shooter races to jump into a waiting sedan.

Chihuahua has been a pioneer in Mexico in rolling out a new system of 
trials, which resemble U.S. adversarial proceedings because 
prosecutors have to prove cases in open court.

The new system means tougher standards of evidence than under 
Mexico's traditional trials, which are decided behind closed doors by 
judges relying largely on written filings from both sides.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake