By Maria Cortes
Staff Writer
The women of Juarez are in danger. They are now the targets of spontaneous and brutal murders happening all over the northern Mexican city, and there seems to be no end in sight. According to Amnesty International, more than 370 young women and girls have been murdered in Cuidad Juarez and Chihuahua since 2005. Mexican officials are calling it a “femicide” of epic proportions.
The Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a statement saying, “The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 12 and 22 years of age. Many were students and most were maquiladora (manufacturing) workers. A number were relative newcomers to Cuidad Juarez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico.”
They continued to say that the majority of the victims had been reported missing and that their bodies were found shortly after in neighboring abandoned lots. In most cases, the victims had been sexually abused, tormented, tortured, and in some cases disfigured.
Why is this continuing to happen after so many years? Why is no one trying to make an effort to save these women? If the victims were male, would they get more attention? Would someone sound the sirens and leap to action then?
Perhaps it’s because women are valued less in societies such as these that no one has tried to make an effort to stop these brutal murders and bring the murderer or murderers to justice. In August of 2006, all investigations concerning the murders were stopped by the federal government because they said that no federal laws had been violated.
No federal laws were violated? Over 300 women have been raped, tortured and murdered and no federal laws have been violated? What kind of logic is that? This is a clear-cut example that women are still considered second-class citizens in some societies. The life of a human being is a precious thing, and I am outraged and disgusted that a government that is supposed to protect its people have allowed for something this heinous to occur.
The women of Juarez are putting their lives at risk every day by simply walking out of their houses and no one is coming to their rescue. How many more women will die today? How high does the death toll have to rise for the government to take action? I am afraid that there is nothing we can do but sit, wait and watch.
