JUAREZ MEXICO WOMEN MURDERS

Introduction

Juarez; the border between Mexico and Texas has been the location of a series of murders over the past decade. What is most alarming about these killings is that are they are committed in a brutal manner with the victims being raped, tortured or even mutilated before being killed. It is also very devastating to realize that these horrendous acts are committed only against persons of the female gender and what is worse is that no significant efforts have been forthcoming in bringing justice amongst these women thus making the situation even more volatile.

What the Juarez murders are all about
The latter murders have occurred over the past few decades. However, the figures may not be very comprehensive given the fact that a large number of women and girls are still missing. It is assumed that a large percentage of these women are victims of serial rape killers. Consequently, if there was a way that some perpetrators could be found, then the safety of many other women could be assured. (Otha, 2008)
It has been noted that most of the suspects who have been arrested by local authorities are not credible. This is largely because if they were, then chances are that the murder or rape cases would have stopped. Since most of them are continuing and they are being done in a systematic fashion, then chances are that it is serial killers that could be committing these crimes.

Juarez is a border town and many people from other parts of Mexico usually come there to take advantage of its economic prospects. However, these visitors are usually the same ones that end up being victims of the serious crimes against women.
The statistics on the murders
Victims of these murders are usually women and girls aged between the ages of twelve and twenty two. Most of them are usually reported as missing by their parents and then some time later, their bodies are discovered or in other instances, they may remain missing for good. Usually, when the bodies are discovered, they are usually located in some vacant lots in certain abandoned areas. The following are some of the characteristics of the victims
• Torture
• Abuse
• Rape
• Mutilation
• Other forms of sexual violence (Washington, 2006)

Because there are some purported government interests in portrayal of the actual facts and figures that have been occurring in Juarez, many activists have opted to rely on statistics released by private and international bodies such as Amnesty International. As of 2005, it was asserted that there were close to four hundred women who were missing and there were about three hundred and seventy bodies that had been found in these locations. The most outstanding and controversial thing about these statistics is that the Mexican government through its own spokesperson asserted that there were only twenty women who had been murdered in Juarez at that time. Additionally, the government proceeded to halt investigations in the year 2006 despite the unsolved killings.

What this shows is that there may be a need for other bodies/ organizations to look into the matter because it seems as though the Juarez leadership cannot be trusted. In close relation to this fact is that very few convictions have been made. It has been claimed that some of these arrests are not justified and that they are hurting the very people they are meant to protect.

When the problem started
The murders began in the year 1993. And have proceeded until present day. However, most of these murders may have been occurred three or five years ago. There are conflicting arguments on whether these murders still deserve the attention that they are getting today. This is largely because in the year 2006, the Mexican President Vicente Fox asserted that the media was responsible for showing the same bodies and images that had been witnessed some years back.

However, the latter assertions were opposed by the congressional special commission. According to the latter group, the President was illustrating just how ignorant he was about the matter and that he was more interested in making his subordinates appear responsible. One such association was the congressional special commissions. Their assertions were supported by the families of the victims who were still seeking justice. (Burnett, 2008)

It can therefore be asserted that due to the controversial nature of this matter, then it is extremely difficult to determine the exact numbers currently in need of attention. However, evidence shows that there are still numerous cases that have to be tried with regard to this matter.

Main location of the murders and Brutality of the murders
It has been noted that the murders are conducted in the City of Juarez which is a few miles near the state of Texas in the United States. Usually, when the murders are committed, the bodies of the victims may be damped in trenches or ditches.
Reports have trickled in a number of newspaper reporters, journalists and the like claim that the murders are being committed just for sport. This is because there is minimal evidence to suggest otherwise. Consequently, a lot of care and effort needs to be put in the process of capturing some of these perpetrators because this is not going to be an obvious thing. Some of the families of the affected victims have almost lost hope of receiving justice because no commitment has been demonstrated by authorities on the matter.

There are also certain findings from books that indicate troublesome issues. For instance, in one of these books, prominent Juarez personalities have been implicated and so have the police. However, because the murders have demonstrated some patterns and similarities, it is difficult to tell whether some of the assertions made in the latter book actually hold water.
However, other journalists also support the latter view. One such example is a prominent journalist in Juarez known as Diana Washington who writes for the El Paso Times. Her image at one of the memorials for the victims is illustrated below. The memorials usually have pink crosses to demonstrate that they were murdered.

An illustration of a Juarez murder activist and journalist at a memorial of numerous women whose killings were unexplained
Source: Burnett, J. (2008): Explosive theory on killing of Juarez Women, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1532607 accessed on 19th Dec

This journalist has been covering the murders for three years and she claims that it is indeed true that some of the people who are carrying out these killings are actually people attending parties or orgies hosted by prominent persons. For instance, the latter journalist identified a drug cartel lord in Juarez who had hosted one of these parties that eventually led to the death of certain victims. (Burnett, 2008)

If the latter claims are true, then the government is in a difficult position since its representatives may be accomplices in the murder. Additionally, the institutions also present another big problem associated with the dilemma of instituting justice since some suspects are well known but they are not being stopped or arrested for committing those crimes.

Why the government did not investigate
Part of the reasons why the government of Mexico has not investigated killings of these women is due to the issue of impunity and corruption within this government. There are about four hundred cases that are yet to be resolved yet the government has done nothing about them.

What this shows is that the perpetrators of the crimes must be influential people within the Juarez community. Alternatively, it could also mean that the government has allowed certain classes of people to operate in a manner which they desire without due consideration of the effects of their actions. Consequently, most of them are operating in impunity.

There are a number of other facts that are quite disturbing to parties that may be interested in the process of restoration of justice. This is because most of the women who work in these border towns usually offer their services to the maquiladora sector. This sector makes millions in the process of production but they utilize sweatshop labor among those women. Besides that, the maquiladora is accumulating a lot of wealth and has sidelined the people of Juarez. This goes to show that there is a high state of inequality in this area and that the failure of the governments to look for perpetrators of the murders is just another illustration of how the common man in Juarez has been undermined by his or her own government.

The government of Mexico has been engaging in a lot of false promises and vows to the families of the victims that they will bring justice to those perpetrators. However, this is actually very far from the truth. As a matter of fact, the government through it representatives have been trying to create false images of action. For instance, in a particular case of a nineteen year old girl who had been killed, the authorities wanted to make it appear that they had done a lot of work in trying to identify the real killers of the victims. They placed a skull on top of the body that had been found in order to make it seem as though they were really doing something.

However, this did not make them appear as though they were in great demand. In fact, the mother to the accused also claimed that the police had taken one of her nephews and tortured him into admission of the killings. Such kinds of acts indicate that the government is not very serious about identifying who the perpetrators of this violence are. Consequently, it should be noted that most of them are in fact capable of taking care of themselves. (Fishburn, 2006)

What the victims’ families and other groups are doing
There have been a number of organizations that have worked hand in hand with the families of the victims to ensure that justice is done. One such organization was the V-Monologues association. The organization dedicated the issue of these murders in their 2003 international V-day and urged the Mexican government to do something about. This group has been instrumental in raising awareness in the rest of the world about the goings on in Juarez. They have also managed to garner interest from other international organizations such as Amnesty International. Through their efforts, this organization has also been able to raise funds that can assist the women of Mexico to fight violence within their countries. These funds are usually directed to the families of the victims as they are the ones who have to bear the pain and suffering from the loss of a loved one. This association organized a march that would be conducted on the fourteenth day of February to honor some of the murdered and missing women of Juarez.

It should also be noted that not all is lost in the fight against female violence in Juarez. This is seen by some of the leaders that have been elected into office within this state through the way they have tried to confront the matter. One such example was governor of Juarez Jose Baeza. When Baeza was elected into office, he immediately appointed a female Attorney General to look into the murders and come up with recommendations on how to deal with the problems. Additionally, he met with family members of the victims and exchanged ideas with them about the way forward. Additionally, this leader made changes in his respective law enforcement authorities and even instated personnel for women issues. (Wiechman, 2008)

Regardless of these efforts, the governor’s election witnessed close to five bodies being found in Juarez just weeks after instating those changes. These patterns are quite common in the latter country when there is a change of government or when new rules have been instituted about women’s rights. It is as if the murderers are trying to seen messages to the existing leaders that their actions do no shake them and that they are willing to continue doing what they have been doing in the past.
It should also be noted that a number of campaigns and marches have yielded fruit from external bodies. For instance, in 2001, there was a campaign against the deaths of these women in the US. It managed to draw the attention of the New York City Council which promised not to invest in any company that was based in Juarez if they had not exerted some effort in working towards the reduction of the murders.
Regardless of this positive response from external parties, the Mexican government has not welcomed exposure of their problems to the international community. In fact, some critics who had arrived from campaigns in New York reported undue treatment from police authorities and other law enforcement agencies. It was claimed that these agencies took their photos by force and even began following them up.

What these citations show is that there is little if any respect for the law in Juarez. In fact, the Deputy President of the Mexican Chamber of the femicide Commission asserted that the rule of law holds no special place in Juarez and the government had been overwhelmed by these matters.

In response to this failure, a separate federal agency had been created in the year 2002. However, some years down the line, it has been shown that these federal agencies are just as ineffective as the state ones and very little progress has been made towards the capture of these individuals. The reason that had been identified by external observers is that both federal and state officials have been very negligent of their duties while others have been guilty of limiting certain vital information that they had been given.

It has also been noted that a number of people have been framed for the murders of these innocent girls and women. Consequently, one can claim that there is still much that has to be done to eliminate these problems in the end. Even statistics that have been used by the government to report murder cases have been downplayed so as to make the problem seem less important than it really is. (Wiechman, 2008)
It should be noted that there can be certain situations in which local authorities contradict themselves about some of these occurrences. For instance, in the year 2003, the police reported that Juan Sadavol had been murdered and raped. They asserted that these rapes had been done through strangulation. However, some time later, the Attorney general decided to make a different comment about it. He asserted that the murder had been caused by a drug overdose and that there was nothing that could be done about it. Consequently, this individual was not placed on the femicide roaster known by the government. However, family members and other people who knew the victim asserted that their daughter could not do such a thing. In other words, the supported the first statement issued by the government on that matter. This issue therefore demonstrates some levels of hypocrisy on the part of the government. (Fishburn, 2006)

Most of the programs that the Mexican government has tried to instate have been highly ineffective. For instance, the government created the Pont Vista program which in English means be aware. What this program was meant to do was to protect women in Juarez by empowering them with tools that would allow them to protect themselves. Instead of using more tangible means of doing this, the government offered the women whistles that they were required to blow whenever they felt that they were in danger. Predictably, this program like many others was seen largely as a public relations gimmick and did very little to improve the safety of the women of Juarez.

Conclusion
As it can be seen above, the murders committed against the women and girls in Juarez are horrific. These crimes are brutal and leave the victims in a state of no dignity at all. Many groups have responded to the plight of the Juarez women claiming that justice should be done and that the murderers should be caught.
However, the government and its representatives have been very slow to react to these problems. Most of the time, the programs instated by the government have been for public relations and very few of them have considered the plight of the victims’ families. Besides this, the very nature of the Juarez authorities is preventing justice because they have allowed corruption and impunity to take over the legal system rather than the rule of law.

References

Otha, T. (2008): The Juarez Murders; Random House Publishers
Washington, D. (2006): harvesting Women – the Mexican Safari; La Jonada Journal
Wiechman, J. (2008): City of missing women; Sternam Magazine, 3rd July 2008
Burnett, J. (2008): Explosive theory on killing of Juarez Women, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1532607 accessed on 19th Dec
Fishburn, L. (2006): Juarez killings escalate as investigations stalls; Women’s Media center

The author of this article is a holder of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard University and currently pursing PhD Program. He is also a professional academic writer. ResearchPapers247.Com>