Philip True

Philip True (18 June 1948 – 16 December 1998) was an American foreign correspondent in Mexico City, Mexico for the San Antonio Express-News. While on a ten-day, 65-mile trek to learn about the Huichol people in the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, Jalisco, True was murdered. True was the first American journalist to be murdered in Mexico in modern times.

Early history

Sierra Madre Occidental with a view across Rio San Ignacio from near the village of Guajurana.Philip True was from San Fernando, California, and he attended both the Los Angeles Valley College and the University of California, Irvine, where he graduated in 1970. After college he was a dock worker and union representative, as well as a drywaller. While in his forties, True became a journalist, first for the Brownsville Herald in 1990 and then for the San Antonio Express-News after 1992. As a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, he had worked the Laredo bureau and then became its correspondent in Mexico City, Mexico. After the initial search for True failed, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, convinced the President's office to commit resources to the search and afterward the missing person announcement was widely publicized. Margarito Díaz, a Huichol hunter, announced he had found a body and guided the party to the site. The Mexican army located True's corpse 16 December 1998 inside a 330-foot deep mountain ravine in the Chapalagana Canyon (Translated from Huichol: "Canyon of the Twisted Serpent') on the Jalisco-Nayarit border. The corpse was found in his sleeping bag alongside a river and was covered in dirt with his neck wrapped with his bandanna.

Investigations

The investigations focused on Juan Chivarra de la Cruz, 28, and Miguel Hernandez de la Cruz, 24, two men of Huichol heritage who were brothers-in-law. After the arrest, the two confessed, but would later recant, initially saying they had killed True for taking unauthorized photographs or that he had trespassed on Huichol lands or that he had shown disrespect to their relatives. The first of the two autopsies performed on True in Jalisco, Mexico revealed that he was strangled with his own bandanna. The autopsy further revealed signs of torture, which was inconsistent with the confession. The autopsy also uncovered signs that he had been bludgeoned perhaps with a stick. Cuts and bruises all over True's arms could have indicated torture or some kind of defensive wounds. The report concluded that True was dead before he ended up in the deep ravine. The report could also be interpreted as a fall caused the blunt trauma. A third forensics report revised the previous two autopsy reports. The report's findings were that True suffered a pulmonary edema which resulted from a head injury and could be interpreted that he was not strangled.

Legal proceedings

The case against Chivarra and Hernandez changed after Miguel Gatins, an American businessman, intervened on their behalf. Gatins lived in Atlanta, as his father had been a hotelier there, and then he resided in Guadalajara. After taking an interest in the case, Gatins was convinced based on contradictions in their interrogation and in the autopsies that there was no conclusive proof that murder had been committed. Gatins spent US $30,000 and worked through his philanthropic organization, Latin American Institute of Philanthropy, to acquire representation to make motions on their behalf. The head of a social service prepared the case. A member of the human rights commission in Jalisco wrote in support of the Huichol men. In 2001, lawyers presented a case to judges that evidence pointed to falling and after a closed hearing to review the evidence, judges released the two men. In May 2002, the case went to the state appeals court. Those judges reversed the acquittal and handed down a 13-year sentence, but because of further appeals, the now convicted men remained free while their appeal could run its course. In February 2003, the federal appeals court found fault with a judge in the lower court that had remained on the case after a request for recusal and so the case was sent back to the state and the convictions were also scrapped. By 2004, the state appeals court had reinstated the conviction, sentenced the men to 20 years in absentia, and also set a sum for damages; however, the men had disappeared after their 2001 release. The case currently remains unresolved until the two men can be located. Miguel Gatins and Robert Rivard questioned whether the Mexican justice system worked. While Gatins originally supported the two Huichol men, he argued that Mexican justice did work when it freed them, while Rivard made the case that justice would not be served if guilty parties were freed. Martha True said she had been disappointed by the closed process and was surprised when the 2001 release. By the end of 2003, Gatins had switched his support to Rivard and True's position.

Awards

Philip True Awards: After his murder, the San Antonio Express-News created an internal award for staff whereby the paper's journalists are judged by their peers in categories.

Book

Robert Rivard, Trail of Feathers: Searching for Philip True: A Reporter's Murder in Mexico and His Editor's Search for Justice New York: Public Affairs, 2005.