Murdered Women of Juarez (About 300-400 now)
Murdered Women of Juarez
Here, their screams scrape against the crisp air, then shatter into a thousand shards of silence. Their cries are captured by dust devils that dance across the desert floor, then are plucked in mid-step by thorny scrub bushes and ripped to shreds. They wail in pain and terror, but no one hears them. These are the voices without echoes, voices of women of Juarez-- over 450, murdered in the last 10 years.
Between 1993 and May of this year (2002), in the city of Juarez, more than 450 women have disappeared and 284 women have been found murdered. Our city is a zone of transit between the Mexican interior and the United States, and hosts a large settlement of migrants who originally came here thinking that they were going to cross the border into the US. Just this week, the bodies of four more women were found half buried in the desert on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a grisly series of sexual homicides haunting this ramshackle border town.
The murdered and missing women were, for the most part, migrants, but they also had other characteristics that made them especially vulnerable. They were also poor women who lived in high-risk areas with little or no access to basic services such as running water, plumbing, streetlights and very little police protection.
The majority of these homicides began with kidnappings that were not investigated when reported. Later the missing women were found dead in vacant lots throughout the city. It is worth noting that, in addition to the characteristics we have already noted that made them vulnerable, the victims all have the same physical appearance in that they are thin, dark-skinned and have long, dark hair. The problem has grown beyond the serial murders. In the past decade, more than 300 women have been killed in Juarez. Every type of homicide against women is common in the city, especially domestic and drug-related killings. Since 1993, the corpses of 90 to 100 women -- no one has an exact count -- have turned up in the desert, in vacant lots and drainage ditches. All were raped, some mutilated. Just as troubling, hundreds of girls have disappeared from the streets of Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people. Many of the victims were chillingly similar: young, slim, dark complexion, shoulder-length hair, and poor daughters of the working class.
They were girls like Alejandra Andrade. The 17-year-old was kidnapped on Valentine's Day, 2001, and six days later her nude body was found wrapped in a blanket and dumped in an empty lot in front of the plastics plant where she worked. She had been choked, savagely beaten in the face, and parts of her breasts had been removed.
"Juarez is headquarters to a major drug cartel, with its attendant violence and lawlessness. For every one woman killed in Juarez, four men die violently," Burnett says.
Another problem is the region's machismo culture. "Despite the fact that most of the victims... were schoolgirls or workers, there's a persistent belief around town that the targeted women somehow invited the attacks," Burnett says.
"Nowadays, it's a common joke when two men see a provocatively dressed woman, for one to elbow the other and say, 'She better watch out or she'll end up in the desert."
At present there are several men detained by the police who are accused of being the killers and masterminds of these crimes. In 1995, Omar Lattif, and the gang called The Rebels were arrested. In 1999, the gang called the Toltec and the Chauffeurs were apprehended. In 2001, Victor Garcia Urbe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza were arrested. With the exception of Omar Sharif Lattif who was sentenced to 30 years in prison, none of the other men has been formally sentenced to a prison term. This notwithstanding, it is now known that the body of the young woman who Omar Sharif was jailed for killing is not that of the woman he actually killed.
Neither of the two governmental administrations has responded to the demands for justice from the families of these murdered and missing young women, which have been made over what is now almost 10 years.
In 1998, the National Commission on Human Rights in our country issued a recommendation (44/98) to the government of the state of Chihuahua, which, among other things, called for enforcing the laws applying to bureaucrats who do not carry out their duties with regard to these complaints in a timely manner. Nonetheless, the recommendation has not, as of this date, been addressed.
To help
Two U.S. groups are involved in efforts to assist the families of victims and are calling for a binational commission to investigate the crimes:
The Coalition on Violence Against Women and Families on the Border is based in El Paso. Co-chairs are Clemencia Prieto and Emma Perez, (915) 593-1000.
Viejaskandalosas, based in Los Angeles, includes artists, writers and others. Founders Azul Luna and Lorena Mendez are at (656) 356-6957, or email at:lapusygata@yahoo.com. The network includes members from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and other states.
Write to::
U.S. President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Mexican President Vicente Fox: www.presidencia.gob.mx (click on Fox icon)
To Read More about this issue PLEASE GO TO THIS WEBSITE! It tells you EVERYTHING!
Here, their screams scrape against the crisp air, then shatter into a thousand shards of silence. Their cries are captured by dust devils that dance across the desert floor, then are plucked in mid-step by thorny scrub bushes and ripped to shreds. They wail in pain and terror, but no one hears them. These are the voices without echoes, voices of women of Juarez-- over 450, murdered in the last 10 years.
Between 1993 and May of this year (2002), in the city of Juarez, more than 450 women have disappeared and 284 women have been found murdered. Our city is a zone of transit between the Mexican interior and the United States, and hosts a large settlement of migrants who originally came here thinking that they were going to cross the border into the US. Just this week, the bodies of four more women were found half buried in the desert on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a grisly series of sexual homicides haunting this ramshackle border town.
The murdered and missing women were, for the most part, migrants, but they also had other characteristics that made them especially vulnerable. They were also poor women who lived in high-risk areas with little or no access to basic services such as running water, plumbing, streetlights and very little police protection.
The majority of these homicides began with kidnappings that were not investigated when reported. Later the missing women were found dead in vacant lots throughout the city. It is worth noting that, in addition to the characteristics we have already noted that made them vulnerable, the victims all have the same physical appearance in that they are thin, dark-skinned and have long, dark hair. The problem has grown beyond the serial murders. In the past decade, more than 300 women have been killed in Juarez. Every type of homicide against women is common in the city, especially domestic and drug-related killings. Since 1993, the corpses of 90 to 100 women -- no one has an exact count -- have turned up in the desert, in vacant lots and drainage ditches. All were raped, some mutilated. Just as troubling, hundreds of girls have disappeared from the streets of Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people. Many of the victims were chillingly similar: young, slim, dark complexion, shoulder-length hair, and poor daughters of the working class.
They were girls like Alejandra Andrade. The 17-year-old was kidnapped on Valentine's Day, 2001, and six days later her nude body was found wrapped in a blanket and dumped in an empty lot in front of the plastics plant where she worked. She had been choked, savagely beaten in the face, and parts of her breasts had been removed.
"Juarez is headquarters to a major drug cartel, with its attendant violence and lawlessness. For every one woman killed in Juarez, four men die violently," Burnett says.
Another problem is the region's machismo culture. "Despite the fact that most of the victims... were schoolgirls or workers, there's a persistent belief around town that the targeted women somehow invited the attacks," Burnett says.
"Nowadays, it's a common joke when two men see a provocatively dressed woman, for one to elbow the other and say, 'She better watch out or she'll end up in the desert."
At present there are several men detained by the police who are accused of being the killers and masterminds of these crimes. In 1995, Omar Lattif, and the gang called The Rebels were arrested. In 1999, the gang called the Toltec and the Chauffeurs were apprehended. In 2001, Victor Garcia Urbe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza were arrested. With the exception of Omar Sharif Lattif who was sentenced to 30 years in prison, none of the other men has been formally sentenced to a prison term. This notwithstanding, it is now known that the body of the young woman who Omar Sharif was jailed for killing is not that of the woman he actually killed.
Neither of the two governmental administrations has responded to the demands for justice from the families of these murdered and missing young women, which have been made over what is now almost 10 years.
In 1998, the National Commission on Human Rights in our country issued a recommendation (44/98) to the government of the state of Chihuahua, which, among other things, called for enforcing the laws applying to bureaucrats who do not carry out their duties with regard to these complaints in a timely manner. Nonetheless, the recommendation has not, as of this date, been addressed.
To help
Two U.S. groups are involved in efforts to assist the families of victims and are calling for a binational commission to investigate the crimes:
The Coalition on Violence Against Women and Families on the Border is based in El Paso. Co-chairs are Clemencia Prieto and Emma Perez, (915) 593-1000.
Viejaskandalosas, based in Los Angeles, includes artists, writers and others. Founders Azul Luna and Lorena Mendez are at (656) 356-6957, or email at:lapusygata@yahoo.com. The network includes members from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and other states.
Write to::
U.S. President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov
Mexican President Vicente Fox: www.presidencia.gob.mx (click on Fox icon)
To Read More about this issue PLEASE GO TO THIS WEBSITE! It tells you EVERYTHING!