Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa

By Linda Diebel

Book Overview

Despite a note beside her body addressed to other "sons-of-bitch" human rights lawyers, the Mexican government ruled Digna Ochoa's violent death "probable suicide" and slammed the case shut in July... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078671753X
• ISBN13: 9780786717538
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

An excellent exposé

The Mexican government's investigation into the bizarre death of Digna Ochoa, a dedicated human-rights lawyer, is set up for scrutiny in this chilling exposé. The author, Linda Diebel, founded and headed up the Toronto Star's Latin-America bureau for seven years before transferring to Washington, and was an acquaintance of Digna's. "Betrayed" presents the known facts of the case, along with statements from Digna's colleagues, friends and family, and from local police and politicians. The portrait of her that emerges is one that forces the reader to think twice about blindly accepting "official" verdicts in such controversial cases. As we learn more and more about Digna's life and passions and her eagerness to see justice done for Mexico's poorest and least privileged, the official position - that her death was a "probable suicide" - is shown to be absurd. Digna wasn't only a warrior for justice, hailed by Amnesty International and Bill Clinton and Kerry Kennedy: she was a former Dominican nun, a young woman with a new boyfriend, a loving and stubborn and headstrong daughter and sister. With the extremely-readable and well-crafted "Betrayed", Linda Diebel has given readers a portrait of a fascinating woman whose spirit burned brightly and much too briefly.

Justice for Digna

"In Mexico, to defend human rights is to risk your life." -Digna Ochoa. And that's exactly what she did. Ironcially, she risked her life by giving a voice to her own people in her own country, unprotected by her own government, and consequently betrayed. Yet many a government official vowed that this case would not go unsolved (staple phrase in Mexico when a crime is committed). Almost 2 years later, the best they could come up with was the most ridiculous, asinine and insulting verdict I've ever read. This verdict was just as riddled with holes as the other victims mentioned in this book. I commend Linda Diebel on her arduous, and at times dangerous, investigative work to produce this book. It was through it that holes such as careless police work of not properly securing the crime scene, removal of the body only after all medical readings are taken, no possible gun powder residue, and something as simple as the chain of custody of the evidence were either discovered or brought out from under the rug. The case of Digna Ochoa is marred and disgraced with incompetence, contradictions, lies, cover up, and ultimately betrayal; things that go against Digna herself and what she stood for. Mexican officials are known to make dissenters disappear (via the army, police, security forces, and others). That explains why testimonies in Digna's case (one of many) were changed and documents mysteriously went missing. If a person who stands in their (government) way can easily be dealt with, then how hard can it be to get rid of a piece of paper? I strongly recommend this book. While the white sandy beaches of Mexico are quite real, so is the corruption, injustices, and atrocities of torturing and killing of innocent people.

A Tragedy Waiting to Happen

Do you want to read a good thriller? Despite its title, "Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa" is much more than an account of a celebrated human rights attorney who was murdered in Mexico in 2001. (The government subsequently tried to pass off her death as a suicide.) This beautifully written and well-documented narrative keeps the reader in suspense: Why try to cover up an obvious murder? How were the investigators able to accomplish it? This is a love story, a history of human rights abuses in Mexico and a political analysis. If you want to read a riveting account based on a true tragedy, be sure to read this one.