Ciudad Juarez

October 13, 2005 2:34 PM

lacitedesmortes - documentary on women murdered in ciudad juarez -- lacitedesmontes.net is not in English, but through its flash presentation and navigation, it should explain enough about the brutality of the unfortunate events that took place in Ciudad Juarez. Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. While the region's law enforcement as well as state's attorney general were either incompetent or corrupt, more than a dozen women's rights groups were created to solve the murder as well as to stop the violence in the region. Thanks to international organizations such as Amnesty, UNIFEM, and IACHR, the number of violent murder on women in the region has degreased for a while, however, the battle still continues. More resources here.
posted by grafholic (11 comments total)

Not trying to downplay the effort, this is a genuine question, but I thought violence and murder was a growing problem in the border region for all people. Why is this specifically a women's rights issue?
posted by Pollomacho at 2:44 PM on October 13, 2005

it is a problem for all people and i am not ignoring those who are battered/abducted/violated/murdered regardless of age/race/gender, however, the main link focuses on the murder that occurred in ciudad juarez and majority of the victims are women.
posted by grafholic at 2:52 PM on October 13, 2005

Oh, dear, I know something about this. My friend is a reporter for ******* (reputable media outlet) and has been talking with an investigator in that very city about it.

It seems that the girls are being tortured and murdered for kicks by a group of extremely wealthy perverts who unfortunately include prominent members of the local government and law enforcement. This means that not only will law enforcement take no action at all, but that you are risking your own life and liberty by even investigating it.

It's unclear how high up the corruption goes -- so says my friend -- but it's very clear that no one, even at the highest level, is interested in following this up and women will continue to be tortured to death for the entertainment of the rich... until people take matters into their own hands...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 2:55 PM on October 13, 2005

Why is this specifically a women's rights issue?

Because almost 500 women have been sexually abused then tortured to death in a little city about the size of Staten Island? This isn't some random violence, this is systematic abuse of women only...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 2:57 PM on October 13, 2005

I first heard strange rumors of this phenomenon while staying at a hostel in New Mexico. I thought it fake. I saw my first news article about it when I came back home. The twist I heard, though, was that the bodies in the desert were missing many prominent organs and the leading theory was that it was related to black-market organ donor markets. When I visited the city a day later, it gave me odd and creepy vibes. Maybe it was just the 75 year old woman roaming around outside the cathedral begging, "aqui, aqui..."
posted by trinarian at 3:17 PM on October 13, 2005

nice post. I remember reading about this, possibly on the blue, a while back. Very scary & very sad.

trinarian, I think Juarez always maintains a creepy vibe. It's a Bordertown rife with poverty, few jobs, sketchy "tourists" visiting sketchy dentists and doctors and even sketchier pharmacies makes for an interesting "vibe."
posted by shoepal at 3:27 PM on October 13, 2005

Eve Ensler showed up in Juarez on V-Day in 2004. Being incapable of understanding that the world can't always be reduced to her own particular experience of it, she went ahead and staged the Vagina Monologues over the objections of the victims' mothers.
posted by Coherence Panda at 5:32 PM on October 13, 2005

I've heard about this story numerous times and I keep expecting to hear that the media interest has led to an arrest or that the murders have stopped. 500 women in 10 years is one woman being murdered per week.
posted by fshgrl at 11:48 PM on October 13, 2005

aye, I keep hoping that too fshgrl but I do believe what lupus_yonderboy says might be what is going on, or something similar since there are so many victims, and then it won't stop that easily.
posted by dabitch at 3:44 AM on October 14, 2005

Was horrified to see no progress in this very worrying case. Also found it sad that this thread gets the same number of posts as the "Humerous rodents" gift thread, sad juxtaposition, just saying.
It is interesting that we believe that with enough media attention, something will happen, like reports of life for Afghan women under the Taliban, the politics there have changed (been changed?) but the underlying social structures allow the same type of things to continue, just like in Ciudad Juarez. Thanks for the post.
posted by Wilder at 6:28 AM on October 14, 2005

Thanks for your answers, I really wasn't aware of this specific problem and the links were less than enlightening. I have heard a lot of media reports about the growing issue of violence and murder related to drug and human trafficing gangs, but I had not heard of this issue as well.

Again thanks for cluing me in!

Oh, and by the way Juarez has about 3 times the population of Staten Island (1.2 Million vs. 400,000)
posted by Pollomacho at 9:02 AM on October 14, 2005