Saturday, September 27, 2008

Mexican Activists Turn Over Mexico City Man to Police in Sally Grace Eiler Murder Case

Last night Mexican police transferred Omar Yoguez Singu, 32, to the Oaxacan attorney general's custody for murdering 20-year-old Marcella "Sally" Grace Eiler. The AP reports that he claims he had consensual sex with Sally, then killed her with a machete during an argument.

Yoguez Singu was captured thanks to the quick action of Oaxacan activists who publicized her murder internationally.

Yoguez Singu raised his friends' suspicions when he returned to Mexico City from a recent trip to San Jose del Pacifico, were locals discovered Sally's decaying and mutilated body in a cabin. They noticed that he was injured and that his two dogs were missing, so they asked him what happened. Yoguez Singu reportedly told them that one of his dogs bit a child in the community, so locals tried to kill the dog with a machete. He allegedly told them that he was injured attempting to save the dog.

Thanks to the widely disseminated statement signed by Oaxacan organizations that Sally worked with, people in Yoguez Singu's circle of friends knew that a woman was murdered in San Jose del Pacifico while Yoguez Singu was there. They called activists in Oaxaca to confirm Yoguez Singu's story about his dogs.

Townspeople from San Jose del Pacifico denied Yoguez Singu's story. They said both of the dogs were still with them because Yoguez Singu had left without them. They also reportedly said he was the last person they saw with Sally before she disappeared.

When Yoguez Singu's friends confronted him about his lies, he reportedly confessed to them. His friends kept an eye on him while Oaxacan activists made the trip to Mexico City to obtain an arrest warrant.

When the arrest warrant was finalized, activists reportedly arranged to meet police in a supermarket to hand over Yoguez Singu. The AP reports that he was arrested on Wednesday, September 24.

Activists were quick to place Sally's murder in the context of rampant unchecked violence against women in Oaxaca. They note that aggressors are hardly ever punished for their crimes. "There is no justice in Oaxaca," said a spokesperson for the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon (CIPO-RFM).

4 comments:

CatE said...

I am Sally's step mom and I want to thank you deeply for posting this chronicle. Your detail and clarity is invaluable. To have this degree of resolution is a remarkable and unusual gift. We hope that you might contact us--- charman23@gmail.com
Catherine

Don Thieme said...

It is good to know that there has been an arrest and that the townspeople in San Jose were supportive. I am just someone with strong friendships in Oaxaca and concerns about the violence there. May Sally not have died in vain.

Anonymous said...

How do we know that this guy they put in jail is really the one that killed her? I find the official story hard to believe, especially after reading the facts you gave us. I would like to know your opinion about this and if someone you know is conducting and investigation...

Unknown said...

My information came from reliable movement sources.

I don't have any facts to back this up, but I don't believe the man's claim that he had consensual sex with Sally and then she pulled a knife on him, so he killed her in self defense. He's already been charged (and according to some reports, imprisoned) for rape. A Oaxaca paper reported that she had defensive wounds on her back, abdomen, and arms, in addition to the fatal stab in the heart. The autopsy photos show two chest wounds. So it's not like he used the machete simply to defend himself as he claims. He attacked her, even after she was down (hence the wound on the back) and then tried to stab her in the heart. One of the chest wounds hit the heart and that's how she died.

He was turned in by activists to the police. These activists do not like the police. The police are their enemies. But they felt it necessary to turn him over to them. Furthermore, nobody has come forward to defend him and claim that he's being unjustly imprisoned. That right there is the biggest red flag. If even one person thought he was being unjustly imprisoned, there would be communiques saying that he's being framed. On the contrary, even though Sally was being followed (most likely by the government), the organizations she worked with seem confident that this is the guy, and that her murder was not directly related to her political activities.

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