The last thing his loved ones knew about Ernesto Cipriano was that he was moving to a meeting with a client from his office. That happened on August 4 and he has since disappeared.
But he is not the only lawyer in Veracruz who has gone through a situation of insecurity. During the month of August alone, there have been three murders of jurists in different parts of the state, which adds to ernesto’s disappearance.
“The constant aggressions even of some who until now have not appeared, all this type of situation is nothing more than a consequence of impunity; so, we have tried to close ranks of all colleagues to protect the normal development of the exercise of their profession, but we do see ourselves in a state that is failing in terms of security, “said the former president of the Bar Association of Veracruz, Braulio Terán del Valle.
He and other lawyers of the entity agree that they are at risk due to the exercise of their profession and that the murders that have been registered are a reflection of the increase in crimes that arise against them due to their work, and that include threats, extortion and disappearances.
Yarlen Utrera, Ernesto’s romantic partner, agrees with the bar associations because he fears that the disappearance is related to that appointment to which he was moving.
The plan of both was that when he left the appointment he would communicate with her and they would go to lunch and the movies. But it didn’t happen, so at 6:00 p.m. Yarlen started calling her and the phone sent her to the mailbox. From that night he went to his house and did not find him; the next morning, she was accompanied by Ernesto’s partner and the house was in complete order. By night they had already looted it using the keys that he himself carried.
“As he sent me in the message of ‘I leave the meeting and I warn you’, we suspect that it is work but we do not know of any specific client, almost all have shown support, some concern for their affairs, and all have shown some willingness to stay waiting for him to return; so, we also don’t know where the situation came from,” he said.
Lawyers in the state are uneasy because they see the way in which their colleagues are victims of one crime after another reported in the media, said Antonio Barat Pérez, president of the Federation of Associations, Bars and Associations of Lawyers of Veracruz.
On August 8, the remains of Octavio Rodríguez were located in Orizaba; he had been wanted since four days before. On August 9, Marco was found murdered outside his home in Poza Rica. On August 14, Rosa Lidia was found in her home, dead.
Barat Pérez indicated that the guild maintains a profession of risk, since they are constantly between two interests: that of the person they defend and that of the counterparty. Therefore, they know that they will have some conflicts, but it must be the job of the institutions to prevent that from turning them into victims of crime, he said.
“It can be deducted because we always injure the interests (…) We are people at risk because we bother the other person, always our activity is an arena where there are two fighters,” he said.
“Our profession itself is risk exercise; unfortunately, as it is about conflict resolution, because there is always someone who will not want to and this brings us as operators in compliance with the rule, and in many cases those resentments are transferred to the lawyer who is only doing his job, “said Terán del Valle.
The killings and the disappearance of the lawyers have occurred even as authorities highlight a decline in crime rates. On August 22, Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez spoke of the decrease in the statistics of intentional homicide that was reported to the National Public Security System (SNSP), where it is indicated that between January and July of this year 503 investigation folders were registered for said crime while in the same period of 2021 there were 661.
“We have had isolated but very relevant events that are gradually becoming clear, but the most important thing is that they are going down,” he said at a press conference.
However, lawyers do not see this decrease. On the contrary, they consider that the risks to exercise their work increase, said Terán del Valle and Barat Pérez. Both explained that among the lawyers there are recommendations to avoid becoming victims of crime, so now they must be very careful about who the clients are, the possible warning signs and leave the cases as soon as there is a conflict.
“Prevention for us is the main exercise, we work with all the actors in this life and that is why we can understand how they operate and it is logical, we advise that care must be taken in this regard, but also our schools what they are doing is trying to unify the registers where they are affiliated and this is to give them greater security, “said Terán del Valle.
These prevention activities were insufficient in Ernesto’s case because, according to Yarlen, he only handled cases of a civil nature such as alimony and commercial matters, as a way of taking care of himself; in addition, he avoided conflicts and even relatively recently left a case with a client due to differences.
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These precautions had helped him not to receive threats because of his work, as is the case with many of his colleagues, or at least he never reported them to his family. However, they were not enough to prevent their disappearance.
“He had told me absolutely nothing about receiving a threat or something strange, even he and his partner were careful of what kind of people helped or worked with them, I even had a month that he had told me about a client who had gotten a little heavy and he decided better to give her the documents, explain what I had to ask another lawyer and that’s it,” Yarlen said.
From the day after his disappearance, Ernesto’s family and partner filed the complaint and gave the Attorney General’s Office all the information about the van where he was traveling, his route and movements. So far, there has been no progress.
In fact, Yarlen said, they do not even have a response from the GPS of the van or from the private security cameras or from the Ministry of Public Security itself, which can provide them with clues about the disappearance and lead them to locate him.
Barat Pérez said that the impunity in which the aggressions against lawyers are found is one of the great pending that the institutions have since, as in other cases, as long as there is no justice, a strong message will not be given to stop it from happening.
He said that for this reason several bars and bar associations will seek to meet with the FGE and with SSP, so that they can outline actions to prevent disappearances, murders, threats and other crimes from continuing.
“We have to do it, several organizations of the state have requested this approach with the institutions of the state so that the prosecutor’s office, the investigation issues are given and, obviously, also Public Security, which is the one that corresponds, and because we want to remain alive and we want to stay free and we want to keep working,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yarlen and the rest of Ernesto’s family ask that he not suffer the same fate as his colleagues and return with well-being to his home, to return to his work, to his cases, to his trips to the cinema and to eat or to his calls every day at 11:00 at night to his mother. In short, to his life.
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