A brief summary and a personal opinion over all the violence going on against women in a country separate from ours, but just on the other side of our border...
Before the Mexican-American War, in 1846, El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua were one city divided only by the Rio Bravo. After, they became different identities, taking with them the similarities that all border towns share. However, what separates them is political corruption and vast murders. The murders, in particular, of 100s of girls, since 1993. Their bodies found in lots and ditches, only some of them were actually identified, after being sexually abused, and, at times, severely mutilated or decomposed. These deaths have been seeking justice, but they have yet to find it.
It all seemed to start following December 17th, 1992. After careful consideration, Canada’s prime minister, Brian Mulroney, the U.S.’s president, George H. W. Bush, and Mexico’s president, Carlos Salinas, all signed an agreement. This agreement was known as NAFTA. It’s main points assured the three nations that products, services, and inversions could flow freely between them and that now factories wouldn’t only be restricted to border towns. Instead, they could now be established even into the deepest parts of Mexico. However, Ciudad Juarez continued its industrial growth spur. People from all over Mexico still migrate there today in hopes of gaining a better living. The majority of them stationing themselves in cardboard homes until they can “upgrade” to something better. Some of them, however, wait until they can cross the border that separates them from an even better life (Rodriguez).
Prior to NAFTA, there had been other agreements made in order to “help out” those workers south of the border and the owners of factories in the North. One of these programs happened to be BIP. Short for the Border Industrialization Program, this provided owners from the U.S. with cheap labor, while still giving better wages to workers in Mexico (at least better then what they were used to). Made after the 1964 cancellation of the “Programa de Braceros”, where Mexicans were hired for periods of time to work in fields, the BIP started to have many advantages. What people were not seeing, however, was the impact that these programs and agreements were having on the overall morality of the city. All of these new factories and jobs made a demand for pleasurable attractions. So, in a city where only about 600 schools are open, more than 6,000 bars can be found all around, where, in most, prostitution is legal as long as the women are over eighteen years old (Rodriguez).
Given these circumstances, it seems like they paved the way for the murders of these young innocent women. Most of them, being between the ages of 11 and 25 years old (Donohoe 30). The physical similarities that the majority of them possess make many believe that some of these murders were not just random acts of violence, but the acts of 1 or more serial killers. In fact, in 2002 U.S. and Mexican criminologists agreed that about 90 of them were victims of this (these) serial killer(s) (geocities.com 1). They were all young, slender, with a brown complexion, long dark hair, thick lips, and lived in poverty, making them more vulnerable (geocities.com 1). So why exactly is their poverty a vulnerability? Well, the fact that most of these girls earn an average of the equivalent of $24, makes them unable to afford reliable transportation, such as a car (Donohoe 30). Meaning that, they either walk by foot to their destinations or take the bus. Either way, however, mostly all girls have to cover a lot of territory by foot on a daily basis, given the geographic settings of Ciudad Juarez, since, after all, some homes can only be reached by foot because there are no roads in tact.
Aside from the similarities that most of them possess in their physical characteristics, the way they are left after they die and the way they are treated prior to their death also bears a lot of things in common. For example, they are raped, some of their body parts are mutilated, and then their bodies are dumped into ditches or vacant lots (Donohoe 1). Two victims, whose families have fought in vain to obtain justice for their deceased daughters fit this “serial killer” modus operandi perfectly. Their names are Silvia Morales and Olga Alicia Perez, and they were both young girls barely starting to live their lives. Both helped out their individual families by getting a job, and one of them was the only daughter to a single mother. However, both were also shown no mercy in the hands of their attackers. Both of them were raped, beaten, and both of their breasts were mutilated in the same fashion. They were than left to die either in vacant lots or in other parts of the desert (Rodriguez 26-29). Seven decomposing bodies were also found in the outskirts of Juarez, in Lomas de Poleo, that fit these two girl’s exact ways of torture, abuse, death, and abandonment. Out of these 7 girls, one of them was a 10 year old child who had also suffered eight severe punctures all over her body (Rodriguez 62-63). Families began to feel outraged whenever they heard of these murders. They could not understand how so many girls were dying, yet there were still no people in jail. Little did these people know that Chihuahua’s forensic scientist, Dr. Irma Rodriguez, was later going to announce how over 40 of the women’s killed, since 1993, their reason of death might never be known due to the degree of decomposition that their bodies had undergone as well as because of the mutilation that some of them had suffered (Donohoe 1). Too bad that their cause of death was not the only thing that was going to remain a mystery.
The exact identity of many of these girl, unfortunately, would also never be known. Some of their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, however, this was not the only impediment scientist in Juarez faced with each new death. The lack of money, for example, made DNA testing impossible. Forensic specialists could only try to reconstruct the faces of many of the victims in order to obtain an identity. The fact these bodies were thrown in the desert, however, made this, a lot of times, almost impossible. The temperatures made their bodies decay faster and the animals around there, like rats, picked at the skin of the victims in order to get something to eat. In many cases, because the actual bodies were not shown to their families, only their reconstruction, many girls identified incorrectly (Rodriguez).
Amidst all of these tragedies, arose many ideas of by whom and why these heinous crimes were being committed. While some believed that one or more serial killer were on the loose, this idea was actually a new one. Prior to this, many speculations were made that all these girls were being killed by members of the Ciudad Juarez drug cartels. These people believed that these girls were picked at random, used to satisfy their sexual needs, and then were quickly disposed of. However, one renown author and investigator of these crimes insists how, although she agrees that drug traffickers are responsible, these victims were not picked at random. So why so are so many girls being killed to satisfy a group of peoples wants being that prostitution in Juarez is completely legal? Well, in her most recent book, Cosecha de Mujeres, Valdez states how each girl is “screened” prior to being used for their enjoyment. And, they fit two very special characteristics, they are all young, and they are all poor. Like previously stated, being poor makes them more vulnerable. Being young, however, also makes them the perfect target because their risk of STDs is much lower. In her book, she also mentions names of police as well as members of the Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana drug cartels whom she believes are responsible for about 1/3 of all these deaths. In fact, she even talks about their political ties to former Mexican president Vicente Fox (Valdez). Two very similar murders of two different girls seem to prove her point that drug traffickers are highly involved and even responsible for a lot of these murders. Olga Lidia Osorio and Marilu Cedillo Zapata were both murdered in the same style and only a couple of hours apart from each other, only that, one of them was murdered in Ciudad Juarez, while the other was murdered in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaluipas (newamericanmedia.org 1). Besides Valdez‘s powerful statements, however, little has been done in order to catch these criminals before cases have been mysteriously dropped (Bard 11). Meanwhile, overall suspicions of other groups of people have also arose amidst the public. Members of a supposal “Los Rebeldes” gang, company bus drivers, and most widely recognized Latif Sharif top the suspects list. Many innocent people, unfortunately, have also confessed to these murders after being severely tortured (Donohoe 31). With so many people on this list, but so little action being made in order to make any progress, one thing is for certain in the eyes of almost all of Juarez citizens. The police are deeply involved in covering up all of these murders.
The system in Juarez contains a lot of political corruption, and the police are at the head of that game. Parents and other family members of victims, for example, are always extremely astonished when the police tries to explain to them how many of their daughters were leading a double life. At many times, including in the case of Silvia Morales, the police insinuated that they worked in nocturnal night clubs. They have also been known to say how their daughter’s way of dressing, in small skirts and heels, was what provoked their murders. This is contradictory to the evidence found, however, being that most of the victims were sporting jeans and tennis shoes when there bodies were found. In February 1999, Chihuahua’s former general attorney, Arturo Gonzalez Rascon was noted to have said in El Diario, the local newspaper, “Women who have a night life, go out late, and come into contact with a drinker are at risk. It’s hard to go out on the street when it’s raining and not get wet” (Donohoe 30). This not only emphasized the degree of machistic thinking that was evident all over the city, but also incriminated the police. Another clear case of cover-up made by the police was by them rejecting the finding of U.S. FBI profiler Robert Ressler (Donohoe 1).
So, while we can all agree that the police has a lot to do with both these murders and their unsolved cases, we all wonder what exactly causes the inactivity of the local police. Well, there are many reasons to attribute to this question. For example, the local police in Mexico hold the least paying jobs and require the least amount of education. One of these factors makes it very easy for them to easily be paid off in order to keep their silence, while the other contributes to the ignorance that they all have. Another reason could easily be, simply, their lack of concern for any of the victims since most of them were usually daughters of outsiders who had only been in Juarez for a short period of time (Rodriguez 17-18). However, it is not only the police themselves that make it hard to stop the femicide in Juarez, it is the system itself that makes it nearly impossible. For example, even though the deaths of these women are so abundant, families must still wait a period of 72 hours before registering any of them as missing. Getting there is hard enough, since most of them do not have cars, but then when they get there they are met with other obstacles like the police telling them that they will contact them with a phone call when they have any information. Acting oblivious to the fact that almost all of them have no telephone line (Rodriguez 17). And, precisely because of the ineptitude, corruption, and intimidation is why instead of these crimes stopping, they keep on happening. A girl by the name if Alma Brisa Molina was the 374th woman to be found dead in Juarez (Donohoe 18).
Although these cases continue to fail to be resolved, and little consolation can be given to the people they left behind, there is still hope in Juarez. Esther Chavez Cano, for example, founded a home called Casa Amiga. It is the only rape center near the border which offers free services to women who have been victimized through domestic violence, rape, incest, and to those families of victims (Donohoe 31). Another organization which continues to provide and seek justice for all of these girl is called May Our Daughters Come Home. Their objective is to restore the community and provide families with support. They are also working on petitions to bring cases before the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights and they explain how they seek reparations not to fill the void, because that can never be filled, but to set a precedent so that neither the state nor the federal government will ever again fail to protect the rights of its inhabitants (geocities.com 3). Besides these organizations, there have also been public demonstrations, like marches in Mexico City, El Paso, and Juarez where up to a quarter of a million have showed up on each occasion (Donohoe 19).
The purpose of picking this topic is to both inform and encourage. Because, although these incidents are happening in a border town, a places south of El Paso, Texas, a lot of people are still unaware of their existence. It is necessary to encourage more people to take action in any way they can. They do not have to go and chase the killer(s) to help, they can do so by simply nagging law enforcement officials until they respond in a positive manner. It is also important to remember the victims of these crime and support the families that they left behind. Most of the crime could, in fact, be prevented by more people working together to bring about justice and to put an end the crimes done against women. I hope you can all see eye-to-eye with me in this matter.
