Native name | Feminicidios en Ciudad Juárez |
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Duration | 1993–present |
Location | Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua |
Cause | Robbery, gang wars, rape, serial murders |
Casualties | |
370+ |
Part of a series on |
Violence against women |
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murder |
Sexual assault and rape |
Disfigurement |
Other issues |
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International legal framework |
Related topics |
More than 500 women were killed between 1993 and 2011 in Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico. [1] [2] The murders of women and girls received international attention primarily due to perceived government inaction in preventing the violence and bringing perpetrators to justice. [3] A narcofosa (mass grave attributed to organized crime) containing the remains of women killed in 2011 and 2012 was found in Madera Municipality, Chihuahua, in December 2016. [4]
In 2005 Amnesty International said that more than 370 young women and girls had been killed in the cities of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua since 1993. [1] In August 2011, it was reported that 130 killings occurred in Ciudad Juárez since January of that year. [2]
A study was conducted in 2008 on the Femicide Database 1993–2007 at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte which documented incidents of femicide that occurred in Ciudad Juárez from 1993 to 2010. Of the various different kinds of murders that were analyzed, the study found two common patterns in the data which were classified as intimate femicide and systemic sexual femicide. [5] Intimate femicide refers to women who were killed by men that were close to them. [5]
According to the study, intimate femicide accounted for 30.4% of the murders of women and girls in Juárez from 1993 to 2007. Systematic sexual femicide refers to systematic patterns in the killing of women and children including kidnapping, sexual violence, torture, and body abandonment in areas such as desert areas, garbage dumps, and sewage ditches among others. [5]
According to Molly Molloy, a former librarian [6] at New Mexico State University, the situation in Juárez is one of "impunity regardless of gender". [7] She states that "female murder victims have never comprised more than 18 percent of the overall number of murder victims in Ciudad Juárez, and in the last two decades that figure averages at less than 10 percent. That’s less than in the United States, where about 20 to 25 percent of the people who are murdered in a given year are women". [8]
Statistical evaluation of data from 1990 to 2012 conducted by researchers Pedro Albuquerque and Prasad Vemala shows that femicide rates in Juárez are in most years like rates in Chihuahua City and Ensenada and, as a share of overall homicide rates, are lower than in most cities evaluated. [9]
Drug cartels operate in Juárez, which has resulted in high levels of violence against the local population, including women and girls. [10] [11] [12] Misogyny is a common trait of gang activity. [12] According to a study conducted in 2008, 9.1% of the murders of women were attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking activities. [5]
Maquiladoras are widely known for their cheap labor and their exploitative conditions, such as regularly violating basic human rights, that often target women. [11] Women and girls often migrate from villages or rural areas in other parts of Mexico in search of work in the maquilas. [13] According to Livingston, this migration of women created, "a new phenomenon of mobile, independent, and vulnerable working women," in cities like Ciudad Juárez. [13] Many of the murder victims in Ciudad Juárez have been maquiladora employees. [11] Despite the expansion of the maquila industry, Juárez still remained a relatively poor and undeveloped city lacking infrastructure in some parts such as electricity and paved roads. [11] As a part of their daily commute, many women maquila workers walk through such areas to and from company buses creating vulnerability to be victimized. [13] [11] In addition, the increased involvement of women in the labor force may also be a contributing factor to the victimization of women and girls because of the competition for economic resources in decades in which male unemployment has been high. [13] [11]
The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 resulted in the expansion of the maquiladora industry and created new opportunities for employment for women outside of the home and in the factories. [11] The availability of cheap labor made it attractive for business owners to open factories in Mexico, and the availability of cheap employment attracted many, especially women, to border towns such as Ciudad Juárez. Research has shown correlations between economic and political issues and violence against women along the border. [11]
Academic Katherine Pantaleo has argued that "NAFTA, as a capitalist approach, has directly created a devaluation of women and an increase in gendered violence." [11] Further, according to Wright, in the time period between the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 and 2001, "the homicide rate for men increased by 300 percent, while for women it increased by 600 percent." [14] Such studies indicate the importance of exploring the effects of NAFTA when considering the possible causes of the murder of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez. [11] Consequently, it has been suggested that amendments be made to NAFTA that include human rights provisions. [11]
Sociocultural attitudes to traditional gender roles have influenced violence against women. [11] According to Pantaleo, "Under the view of patriarchy, two expressions are commonly used in Mexico to show the difference in the status of males and females; these expressions are machismo and marianismo." [11] Machismo is characterized by male power and aggression; while marianismo is characterized by subordination and domestic duties. [11] Women who leave their homes to seek employment in the maquila industry directly challenge the marianismo. [13] Olivera suggests that this changed situation challenges hypermasculinity. [12] According to Livingston, gender-directed violence in Ciudad Juárez may be a negative reaction as women "gain greater personal autonomy and independence while men lose ground." [13]
The murder of women in Juárez has attracted global attention since 1993 given suspected police and government inaction to prevent the murders and bring perpetrators to justice. [3] Police and government officials have been accused of responding with indifference to the crimes against women as well as exhibiting tolerance for such crimes, conducting inadequate and negligent investigations, ineffectively responding to the crimes, and failing to prevent and protect women from violence. [13] [15] [16] According to Livingston, "In 1998 the National Commission for Human Rights issued a report charging gross irregularities and general negligence in state investigations, including the misidentification of corpses, failure to obtain expert tests on forensic evidence, failure to conduct autopsies or obtain semen analysis... failure to file written reports, [and] incompetence in keeping records of the rising tide of women murders." [13]
As a result of international attention, police and government officials have been politically pressured to respond to the murders. [17] In 2011, Amnesty International said, "The government [has] failed to take effective measures to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the abduction and killing of three women in Ciudad Juárez... or to combat the ongoing pattern of violence against women and discrimination in the city. [18]
According to Pantaleo in 2006, "While around 400 girls and women have been abducted and murdered, few arrests and convictions have resulted." [19] For convictions that have been made, there is a great deal of controversy that surrounds them. [19] Police have been accused of conducting rushed investigations with questionable methodology and integrity. [20] Further, suspects that have been apprehended have claimed that they were tortured into confessing. [20] [19] This has caused uncertainty of the legitimacy of both investigations and convictions. [20] [19]
In 1996, an Egyptian, Abdul Latif Sharif, was convicted of 3 murders and sentenced to a 30-year prison term. [20] After his arrest in 1995, the murders continued and authorities claimed that Sharif directed members of the "Los Rebeldes" gang to continue the murders while he was incarcerated. [10] These members were indicted and convicted as a result of this connection. [20] The gang members accused of carrying out murders under Sharif's orders claimed they were tortured while in police custody. [10] According to Monarrez Fragoso, "In the year 2000, it was known that the body of Elizabeth Castro Garcia, whose murder was attributed to Omar Sharif Latif, does not belong to her." [10]
In 2001, Victor Garcia Uribe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza were apprehended for eight murders. [20] Gustavo Gonzalez Mesa died suspiciously while in police custody. [20] In 2004, Victor Garcia Uribe, a bus driver, was convicted of eight murders that took place in 2001. [20] He confessed to these murders, but claimed that he was tortured into confessing by police. [20] On 15 July 2005, García Uribe was freed, this due the lack of evidence about his participation in the murders. [21]
In 2008, 16-year-old Ruby Frayre Escobedo was murdered by Sergio Barraza Bocanegra who was acquitted at his first trial for lack of evidence. Following two years of activism, a retrial convicted Bocanegra, who remained on the run. In 2010, Ruby's mother, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, was assassinated by a shot to the head at point blank range while demonstrating for justice in front of the Governor's Palace in Chihuahua. [22] [23]
There have been several international rulings against Mexico for its inadequate response to the increasing violence against women. [15] [16] In 2004, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) conducted an inquiry into the allegations that hundreds of murders of women and girls had taken place in the area of Ciudad Juarez since 1993 at the urging of several NGOs. [15] In order for the inquiry to take place it was required that there was reliable evidence that showed that Mexico was in violation of rights established by CEDAW. [15] The Committee analyzed the gender-based crimes occurring in Ciudad Juárez and found the two common forms were murder and disappearances. The committee also analyzed the response of the government and found that their initial response was indifference and that the government exhibited tolerance of these crimes for years. [15]
Further, the Committee concluded that the measures undertaken by the Mexican government in response to gendered violence against women leading up to the time of their inquiry were, "few and ineffective at all levels of the State". [15] The committee made several recommendations for Mexico to adhere to. Although these recommendations were not legally binding, they were influential in the public sphere. [15]
According to Amnesty International, "In [2009], the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on the “cotton field” (Campo Algodonero) case that Mexico was guilty of discrimination and of failing to protect three young women murdered in 2001 in Ciudad Juárez or to ensure an effective investigation into their abduction and murder." [16] The Court ordered Mexico to conduct a new investigation of the murders, create a national memorial for the victims, pay reparations to the families of the victims, and to improve measures which prevent and adequately investigate the murder of women and girls. [2] [16]
There have been numerous local efforts that have helped draw attention to the femicides in Juárez. [1] [14] In 1999, a group of feminist activists founded Casa Amiga, Juárez's first rape crisis and sexual assault center. [24] The center works to provide women in Juárez with a refuge against violence, therapy, legal council, and medical attention. [24] In 2002, a social justice movement named Ni Una Mas, which in Spanish means "not one more," was formed to raise international awareness to violence against women in Juárez. [14] The movement consists of a variety of domestic and international organizations and individual activists. [14]
Ni Una Mas participants demand that the Mexican state implement strategies that prevent violence against women including murder and kidnappings and that the state conduct competent investigations on crimes already committed. [14] Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C., which in Spanish means "Our Daughters Back Home" also formed in response to the violence against women in Juárez. [24] Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. has also worked to bring domestic and international media attention to the violence against women in Juárez. [25]
Ciudad Juárez, commonly referred to as just Juárez, is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It was known until 1888 as El Paso del Norte. It is the seat of the Juárez Municipality with an estimated population of 2.5 million people. Juárez lies on the Rio Grande river, south of El Paso, Texas, United States. Together with the surrounding areas, the cities form El Paso–Juárez, the second largest binational metropolitan area on the Mexico–U.S. border, with a combined population of over 3.4 million people.
A maquiladora, or maquila, is a word that refers to factories that are largely duty free and tariff-free. These factories take raw materials and assemble, manufacture, or process them and export the finished product. These factories and systems are present throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Maquiladoras date back to 1964, when the Mexican government introduced the Programa de Industrialización Fronteriza. Specific programs and laws have made Mexico's maquila industry grow rapidly.
Abdul Latif Sharif, first name also spelled Abdel, was an Egyptian-born Mexican chemist and chief suspect in the Juárez killings, a decade-long murder spree that began in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez in the early 1990s.
Femicide or feminicide is a term for the murdering of females, often because of their gender. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russell first implicitly defined the term as a hate killing of females by males but then went on to redefine it as "the killing of females by males because they are female" in later years. Femicide can be perpetrated by either sex but is more often committed by men. This is most likely due to unequal power between men and women as well as harmful gender roles, stereotypes, or social norms.
Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. is a non-profit organization composed of mothers, family members, and friends of victims of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez. The mothers claim that their cases have gone unsolved in some cases for over 12 years. Their hope is to get the murderers of their daughters arrested and hopefully convicted.
Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against men and women being problems dealt with by human rights efforts. Gendercide shares similarities with the term 'genocide' in inflicting mass murders; however, gendercide targets solely one gender, being men or women. Politico-military frameworks have historically inflicted militant-governed divisions between femicide and androcide; gender-selective policies increase violence on gendered populations due to their socioeconomic significance. Certain cultural and religious sentiments have also contributed to multiple instances of gendercide across the globe.
Bordertown is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by Gregory Nava, and starring Jennifer Lopez, Martin Sheen, Maya Zapata, Sônia Braga and Antonio Banderas. This is the second film which featured the collaboration between Nava and Lopez, following the 1997's biopic film Selena.
Human rights in Mexico refers to moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour in Mexico, and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. The problems include torture, extrajudicial killings and summary executions, police repression, sexual murder, and, more recently, news reporter assassinations.
Crime is one of the most urgent concerns facing Mexico, as Mexican drug trafficking rings play a major role in the flow of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States. Drug trafficking has led to corruption, which has had a deleterious effect on Mexico's Federal Representative Republic. Drug trafficking and organized crime have been a major source of violent crime. Drug cartels and gangs have also branched out to conduct alternative illegal activities for profit, including sex trafficking in Mexico. Some of the most increasingly violent states in Mexico in 2020 included Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Jalisco, and Querétaro. Some of the world's most violent cities are reportedly within the state of Guanajuato with extortion from criminal groups now being commonplace. The state of Zacatecas is said to be valuable to multiple organized crime groups for drug trafficking, specifically methamphetamine to the United States. As of 2021, Michoacán is experiencing increased instances of extortion and kidnapping due to a growing presence and escalation in the armed conflicts between CJNG and Cárteles Unidos on regions bordering the neighboring state of Jalisco. CJNG is also currently battling the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in the North Mexican region of Sonora.
Susana Chávez Castillo was a Mexican poet and human rights activist who was born and lived most of her life in her hometown of Ciudad Juárez.
Marisela Escobedo Ortiz was a Mexican social activist from Juarez, Chihuahua, who was assassinated while protesting the 2008 murder of her daughter.
Campo Algodonero in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, is the memorial site for hundreds of women who have died during the past two decades. The Algodonero became an important site after eight women were found dead in 2001. This memorial site was recently created after the verdict of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the State of Mexico in regards to the case of the Algodonero field where eight women were found dead. The memorial site includes a statue of a woman, made by Veronica Leiton, and multiple pink crosses that represent the women who were found. Campo Algodonero serves as a standing symbol of memory that dwells in the lives of all of the victims’ families who refuse to stay quiet and who are constantly in the middle of controversy.
Gender inequality in Mexico refers to disparate freedoms in health, education, and economic and political abilities between men and women in Mexico. It has been diminishing throughout history, but continues to persist in many forms including the disparity in women's political representation and participation, the gender pay gap, and high rates of domestic violence and femicide. As of 2022, the World Economic Forum ranks Mexico 31st in terms of gender equality out of 146 countries. Structural gender inequality is relatively homogeneous between the Mexican states as there are very few regional differences in the inequalities present.
Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders is a 2005 mystery thriller by author Alicia Gaspar de Alba based on the violence, kidnapping and femicides that occurred in Ciudad Juarez in 1998.
Violence and Activism at the Border is a book by University of Texas professor Kathleen Staudt, in which the author discusses violence against women in the border city Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
Violence against women in Mexico includes different forms of gender-based violence. It may consist of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse. The United Nations (UN) has rated Mexico as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), 66.1 percent of all women ages 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives. Forty-nine percent have suffered from emotional violence; 29 percent have suffered from emotional-patrimonial violence or discrimination; 34 percent from physical violence; and 41.3 percent of women have suffered from sexual violence. Of the women who were assaulted in some form from 2015 to 2018, 93.7 percent did not seek help or report their attacks to authorities.
Pedro Padilla Flores, also known as The Rio Bravo Assassin among many other aliases, is a Mexican serial killer who was convicted of killing three women in Ciudad Juárez but is suspected of murdering up to 27 more, some of whom were underage. He was captured and sentenced to prison time for three murders in 1986, but he escaped in 1990 and, after remaining a fugitive from justice, was recaptured in New Mexico and deported back to Ciudad Juárez. On January 24, 2014, ICE agents delivered Padilla to agents from the Mexican Ministerial Police. Currently, he is one of the main suspects in the unsolved femicides in Ciudad Juárez. He was a disorganized, sedentary, hedonistic murderer motivated by sexual compulsion and predatory behaviour.
Femicide, broadly defined as the murder of a woman motivated by gender, is a prevalent issue in Latin America. In 2016, 14 of the top 25 nations with the highest global femicide rates were Latin American or Caribbean states. In 2021, 4,445 women were recorded victims of femicide in the region, translating to the gender-based murder of about one woman every two hours in Latin America.
Mexico has one of the world's highest femicide rates, with as many as 3% of murder victims being classified as femicides. In 2021, approximately 1,000 femicides took place, out of 34,000 total murder victims. Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua, has one of the highest rates of femicide within the country. As of 2023, Colima State in Mexico has the highest rate of femicide, with over 4 out of every 100,000 women were murdered because of their gender. Morelos state and Campeche state were the following in terms of highest rates of femicide by 2023.
The National Citizen Observatory on Femicide of Mexico is a Mexican central entity of citizen participation focused on the exercise of the defense of human rights with a gender perspective. It has been a reference body for the accompaniment of victims of gender violence since 2007, it has also supported to review cases and requests for the declarations of Gender Violence Alert against women in Mexico.
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