Thread: Mexican city rape saga has lessons for locals, expatriate Am

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 170914.htm

Posted on Tue, Aug. 01, 2006

Mexican city rape saga has lessons for locals, expatriate Americans


By Alfredo Corchado and Angela Kocherga

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico - For almost a year, a man preyed on older women here, sexually assaulting his victims, eluding authorities and causing many residents to re-evaluate the lifestyle of this town, long considered a haven for expatriates.

In July, local police, with help from the FBI, tracked down and arrested a man with a criminal record in Texas and charged him with the rape of five women - four American and one Canadian.

The arrest of Jose Luis Alvarez Gonzalez, 58, may solve the crimes. But for the growing number of Americans who head south to retire - many of them from Texas - the case has provided lessons in working with local residents and authorities and understanding the resentment some Mexicans feel about what they see as preferential treatment for foreigners.

"Other than a smile and wave of the hand, many of us didn't know the first thing about who our own neighbors were," said Ruth Starr, a 66-year-old Texas native who lives here part time. "We all learned quite a bit from this horrible ordeal. We all learned to trust."

Some native residents, on the other hand, say the case illustrates the difference in the treatment of foreign women and Mexican women in similar circumstances.

"If this had happened to a Mexican woman, I don't think authorities would have made such a big deal," said Alejandra Saucillo, director of the city's Prevention of Violence Program.

She added, however: "This has also had a positive effect. We're seeing an information campaign emerging for women on how to act after an assault."

Since last October, five women, all of them older, were raped in this town, a 450-year-old colonial jewel famed for its art scene and popular with Texans, who use it as both a playground and home.

The assaults occurred in a country where such crimes frequently go unreported by women because they expect only cursory investigations. Many people are convinced, for example, that the slayings of more than 400 women in and around Ciudad Juarez over the last dozen years have not been solved because of indifference among the authorities.

But, surprising local residents, the expatriate women pressed their cases and forced authorities to act. City officials even sought assistance from Dallas-area law enforcement experts, as well as the FBI. And the expatriate community developed relationships with authorities they previously had distrusted.

"Positive things happened," said Cristobal Finkelstein, director of the city's international relations department. "The most important thing, I would say, is that people started to meet their neighbors, and a number of new programs were initiated and will continue into the future. In the end, we broke down a lot of barriers between both sides."

Guanajuato state authorities allege that for months, Alvarez broke into the women's homes late at night and threatened them with a knife. He would assault them sexually and then talk to his victims for hours, often speaking ill of his own experiences in the United States.

That was the case with one woman from upstate New York, who reported her assault to police and demanded action. Last February, she said, she awoke at 4 a.m. to a flashlight shining in her eyes.

"My initial response in just a heartbeat was to just close my eyes and pretend it wasn't there," said the 60-year-old, who, like many older women here, lives alone.

The Dallas Morning News does not identify victims of sexual assault.

"I knew what happened to the other women before me," the woman added. "They had been beaten. I didn't scream. I didn't fight back."

Her ordeal continued when she reported the crime to police, she said. "The process was almost beyond description, almost abject unconcern," she recalled.

That soon changed, however. The story drew the attention of media outside San Miguel, as well as other expatriates, many of whom have significant investments in the town. Of San Miguel's 80,000 people, more than 10,000 are American, most of them from Texas, according to Fabiola Garcia, Finkelstein's assistant.

The city fired some police officers and pushed for salary increases and professional standards. City officials also consulted several outside sources, including local enforcement officers from Texan cities Midlothian and Waxahachie, in designing training for local police.

Police officers and the mayor soon began holding town hall meetings with foreigners, trying to assure them of their safety. Authorities increased foot, car and horse patrols, particularly in areas where the rapes occurred. Residents, American and Mexican alike, formed neighborhood watch groups modeled after programs in the United States, said Finkelstein.

"Our safe city is now safer," he said.

Alvarez was captured July 5 and charged with rape and burglary after DNA tests tied him to evidence collected at least one crime scene, Mexican state and U.S. federal authorities say.

Not much is known about Alvarez. He used various aliases over time and served five years in a Texas prison for burglary, authorities said.

Alvarez, who faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted, is being held in state lockup in Guanajuato. State authorities said he denied committing the crimes but acknowledged having sex with the women, saying they had consented out of their "liberal views." Requests for an interview with the suspect were denied.

Meanwhile, Rosalinda Chavez, a 40-year-old food vendor, said she applauds the expatriate women for speaking out and trying to hold law enforcement officials accountable.

But, she added, "A Mexican woman would not have received that type of attention. ... It was the dollars that Americans bring here that mobilized authorities."

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1402