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Mexican Judge Tells of Threats to Colleagues

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Times Staff Writer

With drug war casualties mounting, a federal judge has taken the unusual step of announcing that organized crime had threatened seven jurists this year and that all were under police protection.

Judge Elvia Diaz de Leon told a news conference here this week that several of her associates had received death threats directed at them or family members, with the aim of influencing their verdicts.

“Fortunately, experience shows us that in the overwhelming majority of cases, this kind of threat does not succeed,” Diaz de Leon said. “The great majority [of judges] carry out their constitutional duties with excellence, professionalism and impartiality.”

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The comments came as Mexican judges and prosecutors face increased criticism in the nation and the United States that they had bungled some cases against alleged drug barons and ignored evidence against others.

To many Mexicans, the threats against judges who hear drug trafficking cases weren’t surprising given the reach and boldness of the drug cartels. What was unusual was that Diaz de Leon made the threats public, and speculation afterward centered on her possible motives. She was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Organized crime expert Jorge Chabat of the Center for Economic Teaching and Research, a Mexico City think tank, suggested that in the face of the drug violence, judges were merely trying to rally public support for a dangerous job. Other analysts thought electoral politics could be at play, given that a presidential campaign is underway.

“We are 10 months away from an election, and insecurity and public safety are increasingly going to emerge as a campaign issue,” said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “This is not to belittle or diminish the threats the judges are under. All I am saying is you have to keep the violence itself or comments about the violence in perspective, to what extent it’s electorally driven.”

Ernesto Lopez Portillo, a justice expert at another think tank here, the Institute for Security and Democracy, said the comments might have been directed at the United States, which in recent weeks had criticized Mexico’s apparent inability to stem drug-related violence. Lopez Portillo said he didn’t think Mexican judges were capable of fighting organized crime.

“This may be a cry of protest from the judges that they don’t have the resources or training to do what is expected of them, especially in executing very specialized strategies in matters such as fighting money laundering or using protected witnesses,” Lopez Portillo said.

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The disclosure of the threats brought varied reactions even within the administration of President Vicente Fox. Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar on Thursday praised judges for their courage and commitment to Mexico, urging them to “not give in to organized crime.” But Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, the Cabinet member in charge of the drug fight, appeared to question the threats’ validity.

“I don’t know about these death threats. You have to be very careful with this kind of statement,” Abascal said. “Often this type of threat or supposed threat are not what they seem, because they create rumors and suggest images, just as we are confronting challenges.”

Maria Elena Morera, president of Mexico United Against Crime, a grass-roots citizen movement, suggested that judges handling drug trafficking cases should be anonymous, or sin rostro (faceless), as in Peru and Colombia, to avoid corruption and death threats.

But Diaz de Leon firmly rejected that notion Wednesday, saying it would only increase their risks. Lopez Portillo agreed, saying that “the power of organized crime is always greater than the government’s ability to hide its judges.”

Meanwhile, a study by Carlos Mario Perea of the National Institute of Penal Sciences found that the increasingly bloody rivalry among drug cartels had reached “historic levels” and taken on a new character over the last decade. Though violence has declined in rural states, such as Oaxaca and Jalisco, it has increased 35% in cities in border states, including Chihuahua, Baja California and Tamaulipas.

According to a tally by the newspaper Universal, drug wars have killed 910 people nationwide this year.

Times staff writer Cecilia Sanchez contributed to this report.

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