No evidence of murder

last updated 8 January 2015

Mexico City

A Mexican special prosecutor has determined that the mysterious death of a prominent human-rights lawyer was actually a suicide. Digna Ochoa’s body was found in her Mexico City office with a bullet in the head. A note found by the body threatened other human-rights activists. Colleagues insisted that Ochoa, 38, was murdered, and said the case would test the government’s commitment to justice. The first investigator was forced to resign after saying that Ochoa had emotional problems and probably killed herself. But special prosecutor Margarita Guerra reached the same conclusion. “There wasn’t one thing that could lead us to believe that someone was interested in taking Digna’s life,” she said.