Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a Mexican border city across the Rio Grande (Río Bravo) from the US city El Paso, Texas, has for more than a decade been a focus of international attention because a spate of murders of women. Most of the cases remain unsolved.

According to the Organization of American States's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 15 and 25 years of age. Many were students, and most were maquiladora (foreign owned factories). A number were relative newcomers to Ciudad Juárez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico. The victims were generally reported missing by their families, with their bodies found days or months later abandoned in vacant lots or outlying areas. In most of these cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture or in some cases mutilation. [1] (http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2002eng/chap.vi.juarez.htm)

According to Amnesty International, as of February 2005 more than 370 bodies had been found and over 400 women were still missing. [2] (http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/mexico/document.do?id=5AB197BCEE37D92D80256FB600689A74)

Contents

1 Criticism of investigations 2 Arrests 3 Reactions 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links

Criticism of investigations

There has been growing disatisfaction, both within Mexico as well as internationally, with the progress of the official investigations, leading to charges even of police complicity. Critics say investigations have ground to a halt because of corruption, incompetence and witness intimidation. They point out that when the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was brought in to help, Chihuahua state officials rejected its findings. The serial slayings have continued despite numerous arrests and claims that they have been solved.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights noted in its 2002 report on the Juárez case that "...the response of the authorities to these crimes has been markedly deficient... On the one hand, the vast majority of the killings remain in impunity; approximately 20% have been the subject of prosecution and conviction" and "an important segment of the killings in Ciudad Juárez took place at the hands of an intimate partner, but their significance has yet to be acknowledged by local officials."

Arrests

Various individuals have been arrested in connection with the murders. However, the Mexican police has been criticized for making arrests with little or no evidence, and they been accused of coercing people to confess to murders, destroying evidence, even kidnapping women.

One of the first arrests made was that of an Egyptian-born chemist, Abdul Latif Sharif (born in 1947), who was accused but never convicted of several rapes in the United States before moving to Ciudad Juárez in 1994 to escape a deportation hearing in Texas. Since his conviction and imprisonment for the murder of a young maquiladora worker in 1995, the police have arrested two groups of men whom they allege Sharif was paying "from behind bars" to rape and murder on his behalf in an attempt to establish his innocence of the crimes.

However, despite the arrests of Sharif and his alleged co-conspirator, the killings continued, leading the Mexican police and the public in general to consider many theories, among them that the real killer or killers are still on the loose or that the original killer or killers are in jail and copycats have moved to the area since. There are also accusations that there has been a conspiracy of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians bribed by the killer or killers.

Other suspects convicted in connection with the affair include Víctor García Uribe, convicted in October 2004 for eight of the murders, and Gustavo González Meza, who was arrested on suspicion in some of the killings but died in jail under suspicious circumstances on February 8, 2003. On January 7, 2005, four members of the "Los Toltecas" gang were convicted of six murders and six member of the "Los Rebeldes" gang were convicted of another six murders. Jesus Manuel Guardado and four other "Los Toltecas" had been arrested in 1999. One was found not guilty. Five of the twelve convicted so far have been bus drivers.

Reactions

On May 30, 2005, President Vicente Fox told reporters that the majority of the Juárez killings had been resolved and the perpetrators placed behind bars. He went on to criticize the media for "rehashing" the same 300 or 400 murders, and said matters needed to be seen in their "proper dimension." [3] (http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=10677&tabla=miami) [4] (http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/actividades/conferencias/index.php?contenido=18606&pagina=1) In response, the congressional special commission for the killings said that the president needed to be better informed about the situation. [5] (http://www.cimacnoticias.com/noticias/05may/05053010.html)

To protest the lack of progress in the case , a huge free concert is being organized by famous Latin artists such as Alejandro Sanz, Alex Ubago, Manu Chao, Lila Downs and others on September 18, 2005 in Mexico City's central Zócalo square. [6] (http://www.cooperativa.cl/p4_noticias/site/artic/20050514/pags/20050514111058.html)

Footnotes

• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Situation of the Rights of Women in Ciudad Juárez (http://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2002eng/chap.vi.juarez.htm) (2002) —
  Report by OAS human rights agency.
• "Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa a.c. (http://www.mujeresdejuarez.org/)" is a non-profit of mothers by mothers in Ciudad Juarez who claim that their cases have gone unsolved for over 12 years, and wish to get the murderers of their daughters convicted.

References

• Antonio Mendoza, Killers on the Loose: Unsolved Cases of Serial Murder, (Virgin Books 2002), ISBN 0753506815 — Study of unsolved serial killing around the world, including Ciudad Juárez.
• Simon Whitechapel, Crossing to Kill: The True Story of the Serial-Killer Playground, (Virgin Books 2002), ISBN 0753506866 — Updated edition of the first detailed study of the Juárez murders.

External links

• Lourdes Portillo (http://www.lourdesportillo.com/senoritaextraviada/index.html), Señorita Extraviada (2001 video) ISDN 0807861731
• Juarez police drop 72-hour requirement for missing persons reports (http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/14043.html) May 2005
• "Cosecha de mujeres. El safari mexicano" (http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/may05/050508/040n1soc.php), by Diana Washington, La Jornada