Inquiry Into Mexican Rights Lawyer’s Death Points to Suicide

In an Agatha Christie twist to an already mysterious case, the special prosecutor looking into the October 2001 shooting death of prominent human rights advocate Digna Ochoa has found that the lawyer likely committed suicide -- and may have tried to create the impression she was murdered.

Former Judge Margarita Guerra y Tejada, who led an 11-month investigation of the slaying, said Friday that forensic evidence, events in Ochoa’s life leading up to the shooting, and her emotional state all pointed to suicide as the probable cause of death.

“I say it with pain and a humanitarian sense because we are not trying to denigrate or in any way abuse her. She had a prefabricated idea, an outlined idea” of her suicide, evidence of which was left behind in documents and messages, Guerra said.

Ever since Ochoa’s body was found, slumped over a sofa in her office with point-blank gunshot wounds to her left thigh and temple, speculation has swirled that the 37-year old former nun was murdered by army officials or on orders of local chieftains in Mexico’s Guerrero state, where she defended the rights of indigenous communities and ecologists.

The year before her death, Ochoa received the American Bar Assn.’s Human Rights Award for her courageous legal defenses.

Guerra, 63, will formally present the results of her investigation -- about 2,000 pages long -- to the public as early as today. She took testimony from more than 60 of Ochoa’s friends, former associates and possible enemies and received the cooperation of the FBI and U.S. State Department.

Guerra said in an interview that the inquiry turned up numerous instances of Ochoa inventing threats and personal danger, even to the point of fabricating anonymous threatening letters to herself. Three such letters were found in her office at her death, fueling speculation that she had been executed.

Declining to comment in detail until the evidence gathered by Guerra is made public, human rights activists Friday nevertheless expressed doubts about the government’s case, which they say has been compromised from the start.

“We are not in a position to reject [suicide as the cause of death] at this point, not having seen the evidence. But based on the information that has come out recently, we are concerned ... the government has decided to conclude the investigation too soon,” said Wende Gozan, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International USA in New York.

Former associates of Ochoa’s at Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez pointed up inconsistencies and errors in the investigation that were detailed in a study finished last month by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington.

Guerra, however, said that the study confirmed some of her findings, including ballistics tests conducted during Ochoa’s autopsy.

Ochoa’s brother said in an interview Friday that the family rejects the suicide finding and maintains that she was murdered.

“We are convinced that we are confronted by a crime. We will not rest until it is solved,” said Jesus Ochoa y Placido.

Laurie Freeman, a Mexico specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group, said she had “serious questions about the suicide hypothesis and the way the investigation was conducted.

“Just because someone has suicidal tendencies doesn’t mean they can’t be murdered,” Freeman said.

Guerra said that the probe turned up a pattern of falsehoods spread by Ochoa to glorify herself and exaggerate the dangers she faced.

The special prosecutor added that her investigators could not substantiate any of the death threats that Ochoa claimed to have received in the course of her work.

Guerra said that Ochoa made false claims to Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, author of a recent book on courageous human rights advocates.

Ochoa told the author that she worked for the Veracruz state prosecutor’s office, that she had been kidnapped and that her father had spent two years in jail -- none of which turned out to be true, Guerra said.

Events in Ochoa’s private life leading up to her death may have pushed her to realize what Guerra described as suicidal tendencies. Former colleagues and friends had urged Ochoa to seek psychological help.

Before her death, Ochoa had had a falling out with the Pro Juarez group, had suffered a reversal in career plans and was involved in a dispute with the MacArthur Foundation over money she spent during her 2000-01 fellowship, Guerra said.

“Her family claims we are trying to discredit her,” Guerra said. “We can’t protect a situation because then the probe loses all credibility. Taking these facts into account, we can understand why what happened happened.”