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family’s complaint in it, nothing more,” said coordinator María de la Luz Balderas
Rodríguez. “There were no witness testimonies. No evidence. I would just read the cases
and file them away.” 345 When the meetings with families began, she said, she looked for
the gaps in the investigation, sought new leads, and encouraged investigators she
oversaw to fill them in. Prosecutors became more thorough in completing rudimentary
steps—from tracing victims’ cell phones to interviewing key witnesses—that had long been
overlooked, and uncovered new leads they had previously missed.
Trust was also built through collaboration between prosecutors and human rights
defenders. The attorney general gave CADHAC’s staff full access to the victims’ case files,
which the organization’s lawyers started to review closely and use to make informed
recommendations regarding gaps in the investigations. Here, again, initial resistance on
the part of prosecutors gave way to a stronger working rapport. “The prosecutors started to
realize that [the review] was not a form of aggression, but rather that we were in search of
the truth and trying to find the same people,” said Consuelo Morales of CADHAC. 346 The
outcome, according to prosecutors and human rights defenders, was a gradual shift
towards more thorough, transparent investigations.
When victims’ families started to see prosecutors making real efforts to find their loved
ones, they gained confidence in officials and grew more willing to collaborate with them
and provide suggestions for leads, which in turn helped open new leads for investigators.
“After we started to work the cases one-by-one, the people began to trust us more. They
started to tell us things,” said coordinator Roman Sabino Loredo Esquivel. 347 “The families
used to be afraid that we would not investigate if we knew there were criminal ties
regarding the victim or those responsible,” said another prosecutor. “Now they see that is
not true.” 348 The same was true for members of CADHAC. “The working meetings ceased
being a place to fight over power, and instead became a place of a joint search for
solutions to shared problems. It became clear that we were all pursuing the same
objective,” said Álvarez from CADHAC. 349
345 Human Rights Watch interview with María de la Luz Balderas Rodríguez, October 25, 2012.
346 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Consuelo Morales, director of CADHAC, December 4, 2012.
347 Human Rights Watch interview with Roman Sabino Loredo Esquivel, October 25, 2012.
348 Human Rights Watch interview with Eduardo Ayala Garza, October 25, 2012.
349 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with María del Mar Álvarez, December 5, 2012.
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