Mexico: prosecutor accused of covering up the alleged murderer of Ariadna López

The death of a young woman once again exposed the inefficiency and alleged corruption surrounding the investigations of femicides in Mexico, which number in the hundreds, after the prosecutor in the case was accused this Monday of covering up the alleged murderer.

Ariadne Lopez, 27 years old, disappeared on October 30 after chatting with friends in a restaurant and then in an apartment in the traditional Roma neighborhood of Mexico City.

His body was found a day later on a highway 90 km from the capital, in the state of Morelos. The state prosecutor, Uriel Carmona, assured that the young woman died of “serious alcohol intoxication and a consequent bronchial aspiration. Up to this point, the autopsy is not consistent with a femicide,” he added.

But the case of López, which led to a demonstration, gave a dramatic twist this Monday after the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum accused the prosecutor of covering up a friend and alleged murderer of the young woman.

“The attorney general of the state of Morelos is covering up and trying to cover up a femicide,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference.

The official showed a video from a security camera in which, according to what she said, the suspect, identified by authorities as Rautel “N”, is seen introducing the lifeless body of the young woman into a vehicle.

There are “alleged links between the femicide and the Attorney General of Justice of Morelos“added the mayor, who promised punishment. The man, who even attended the wake, turned himself in to the authorities on Monday, while his girlfriend was arrested on Sunday. The Morelos prosecutor, for his part, “categorically” denied these allegations because “they lack all sustenance,” reported the district attorney’s office in a statement.

At the request of López’s family, the Mexico City prosecutor’s office carried out a second autopsy, according to which “the young woman’s body had various injuries from beatings”, due to which “it was determined that the reason for death was trauma. multiple that is classified as fatal”.

López’s death evoked the notorious case of Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old teenager who disappeared after attending a party and whose body was found in April in a water tank on the outskirts of the city of Monterrey (north).

Escobar’s family denounces that the investigation is riddled with irregularities, for which three autopsies have been necessary: ​​the official one, one contracted by relatives and another to seek to homologate both opinions.

So far no arrests. Sheinbaum warned that if the capital prosecutor’s office had not acted, “this femicide (the case of López) would have gone unpunished.”

Lopez Obrador intervenes in the case

For his part, the president of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador, intervened last Tuesday in the case demanding that the prosecution that the facts need to be clarified and could not be left without an in-depth investigation. He also recommended giving the investigation a human rights approach so that it is resolved as soon as possible.

“An aberrant violation of human rights, a horrendous act. It should not be left without an in-depth investigation and it should not matter which authority tried to change the facts”, assured the President.

Likewise, he also asked the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to take up the case, since the conflicting versions between the Mexico City and Morelos prosecutors do not allow the investigation to advance.

Between January and last September, Mexico registered 695 femicides, compared to 978 for all of 2021, according to official figures. Most of these crimes remain in impunity.

Among them, the murder of Jazmín Zárate, an artist who sang against this theme, who a few months ago participated in the song ‘Ellla did not return’, in protest against the murders of women in Mexico. Last Wednesday, she was found dead while leaving a presentation.

INTERNATIONAL WRITING*
*With information from AFP