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Two unsettling cases for Mexico’s justice system

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In one case, the death of 4-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah appears to be resolved. She died right where she was found, Mexico state’s attorney general announced last week, wedged at the foot of the bed and undetected for nine days by police and relatives who searched the home.

Case closed? Hardly. Politicians from both left and right are calling the investigation a sham. (Links in Spanish.) The prosecutor acknowledges ‘deficiencies’ in the inquiry.

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In the other case, one of the most powerful men in Mexico disappears, and several state and federal police agencies mobilize to find him. A week into the investigation, the son of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos asks law enforcement groups on the case to back off. ‘We’ll handle the negotiations,’ the Fernandez de Cevallos family said in a statement, seen at left.

Then the federal attorney general’s office releases a statement in reply, saying they’ll comply with the request. And just like that, the investigation into the disappearance of ‘Diego the Boss’ -- who ran for president in 1994 and has remained a powerhouse in Mexican politics since -- is officially suspended.

These developments in two unrelated high-profile investigations in Mexico offer an unflattering glimpse into the state of the country’s criminal-justice system. Slow-moving efforts at reform aside, they represent to many Mexicans the well-known flaws in their justice system: corruption, cronyism and deep public mistrust of institutions.

To say nothing of the news media. In the case of ‘Diego the Boss,’ leading media empire Televisa said it would no longer cover the disappearance in order to not harm the family’s ‘negotiations.’

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

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