The Mex Files

I’ve been sorting paperbacks in the little English-language second hand book shop here and if I saw book cover promising a story of murder, ballet, Fidel Castro, terrorists, and a hint of lesbianism what shelf would I put on?  In this case, we’re talking about local, current events.

Cuban ballerina Margarita Naranjo De Saá was found dead in her downtown Mazatlan apartment on 26 August, apparently having been strangled.  Naranjo De Saá was the daughter of Ramona de Saá, “one of the women closest to Fidel Castro, a symbol of the Cuban Revolution and a mythic figure in the world of ballet,” according to the Sinaloa Noreste.

By all indications, ballet was the entire focus of Naranjo De Saá’s life.  After two bad marriages in Cuba, and despite having a son,  Jesús Manuel Huet Naranjo from the first marriage she has been working abroad — first in Italy, then in Mexico — for about ten years.   Until Jesús– now 14 years old — joined his mother in Mazatlan in a new apartment on 17 August, she lived quietly with  Cuban ballerina, Zoyla Fernández Fernández, and Fernández’ sister.  Naranjo De Saá’s second husband, Dr. Waldo García Ferrera, a liver specialist, defected from Cuba in November 2007 and has also been living in Mazatlan.

Garcia met Naranjo for breakfast the morning she was murdered, and is naturally a “person of interest” in the investigation of the crime.  Police questioned Zoyla Fernández , and briefly detained her as a suspect.  Noroeste says only that there were “rumors” about the nature of the relationship between Naranjo and Fernández (Mexican provincial papers are still squeamish about sexual matters), which might make Fernández a logical suspect in Naranjo’s murder, but then drops the subject.  And reports that Fernández was not under suspicion.

On 28 August, folowing Naranjo’s funeral, and while Ramona De Saá was in Mazatlan, Dr. García kidnapped off the street — according to his complaint — by unknown persons who beat him and tried to force him to sign a written confession to the murder of his ex-wife. Though the Cuban authorities, meanwhile, Sinaloan investigators received “annotated legal documents” detailing Dr. García’s record of spousal abuse.

Ramona De Saá denied all connection with the kidnapping, as has the Mexican prosecutor.  On the first of September, the Mexican police obtained a warrant to search the doctor’s apartment, and seized records and his computer.  García, according to anti-Casto Cuban exile sources, appealed to the United States Consulate in Hermosillo (Sonora) and — U.S. Congressman Lincoln Bartlett-Diaz (whom he calls “my congressman”) for assistance, and then disappeared… still proclaiming his innocence.

“Solidaridad sin fronteras” — not to be confused with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders — is a medical assistance group, based in Miami, composed of Cuban exile healthcare workers, which seeks to help Cuban professionals defect from the island and obtain professional certification in the country where they take refuge.  It also seeks to provide an alternative Cuban medical presence to the well-known official Cuban medical “missions”.  As a medical society for Cuban defectors, I can see their interest in Dr. García, but had a hard time figuring out the reference to them as the “humanitarian organization organizing the defense of” the doctor (as the Miami Nuevo Herald says).  So far, he hasn’t been accused of anything.

It gets even murkier, when you realize that “Solidaridad sin fronteras” is more than an exile medical group.  It is also “Barrio Afuera” — which seeks to assist Cuban medical personel in defecting, and seems to have a connection (which I admit I can’t figure out) with CANF… the Cuban-American National Foundation, which has been responsible for terrorist activity in Cuba (Luis Posada Carriles is one of CANF’s more outstanding leaders), and collaboration with Zetas and other criminal gangs in people and narcotics smuggling operations in Mexico.

Once Waldo surfaces — if he surfaces — I’m sure the story will get even weirder… and I imagine not so intriguing.  This is a real life tragedy, not just because of the murder, but because Mazatlan became known for something besides shrimping, smuggling and sandy beaches thanks to Naranjo’s dedication to her art.  This city’s dance companies are known world-wide, and her murder is a serious blow to the community.  And, when we learn the facts — if we learn the facts — I imagine the thing will turn more on something very human like rage or jealousy or greed or simple stupidity than on any international intrigue.