Pubdate: Sun, 12 Sep 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829
Author: Diana Washington Valdez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Juarez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

WOMEN'S SLAYINGS CONTINUE IN JUAREZ

Three women's bodies were dumped in Juarez on Sept. 6 in areas of 
great importance in Mexican history.

Claudia Leticia Estrada, 34, was left at a street crossing in the 
Colonia de Independencia. Claudia E. Tiscareno Hernandez, 22, and an 
unidentified woman, 20 to 25 years old, were found near 15 de 
Septiembre and Monte de las Cruces in the Colonia Miguel Allende.

All three were killed by gunfire. Then their bodies were tossed in 
places with names associated with Mexico's War of Independence from 
Spain. Mexico will observe its independence on Wednesday.

The three victims brought to 1,000 the number of girls and women 
killed in Juarez since 1993.

"Between January and August of this year, there were 167 murders of 
women," said Julia Monarrez, a professor at Colegio de la Frontera 
Norte-Juarez.

The other 2,000 homicide victims this year in Juarez were men.

Gangs and drug cartels sometimes leave bodies in certain places to 
send a message to rivals or the authorities, said Sergio Gonzalez, a 
Mexico City author, who has written about the women's murders and drug cartels.

Not only are more women being killed than before, but also the 
profile of the victims has changed in recent years, Monarrez and others said.

They are older than in the past, and many of them come from the 
middle class, no longer just from poor neighborhoods.

Imelda Maruffo, director of the Red Mesa de Mujeres de Ciudad Juarez, 
a network of 13 nongovernmental organizations that keeps tabs on 
gender violence, said recent victims ranged from 29 to 39 years old. 
In previous years, typical victims were 10 to 19.

Maruffo said the government does not have a reliable database for the 
women's murders in Juarez or the rest of Mexico. And the fact that 
police say most of the victims, men and women, were killed by 
organized crime or drug cartels makes it difficult to sort out each 
case, Maruffo said.

Last year, Cristina Aranda, 35, and Patricia Avila, 38, two 
councilwomen of the Township of Guadalupe, a farm community at the 
eastern edge of Juarez, were among those who were slain. No one has 
been charged in their deaths.

Marisela Ortiz, co-founder of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May 
our Daughters Return Home), said young women also continue to 
disappear in Juarez.

"We find out about some of the disappearances from 
government-sponsored signs or fliers that the victims' families 
attach to buildings in the Downtown area, or from occasional news 
reports," Ortiz said.

"It is lamentable that we have 1,000 victims to show for all our 
advocacy work, the threats and attacks many of us sustained. It shows 
that we are probably worse off now than before. Juarez is not safe for women."

Molly Molloy, a librarian at New Mexico State University, has teamed 
up with Charles Bowden, author of "Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the 
Global Economy's New Killing Fields," to bring more attention to the 
men's murders in Juarez and collaborate on another book.

"The actual numbers of human beings killed has been obscured by 
irresponsible and false stories about femicide(s) that leave the 
impression that only women are killed in Juarez, that women are 
always killed because of their gender, that all of the women killed 
are young and beautiful," Molloy said. "In the huge majority of 
cases, women are killed in the same way and for the same reasons as 
the 10 times more men who are killed. They are shot to death, and the 
person or persons who want them dead get away with murder.

"Many times the women have some working connection with some part of 
the drug business and are executed just like the men."

Molloy said she has used newspapers and a master's thesis by Yale 
University student Erin Frey for the homicides figures and reports 
she distributes and publishes online.

Ortiz agreed that many men's murders have gone unpunished, but she 
disagreed on why they were killed.

"Many men were killed because they were involved in risky behaviors, 
such as gangs and as cartel workers," Ortiz said. "Others were in the 
wrong place at the wrong time or were innocent bystanders. But most 
of the women, whether they were killed by a gang, a stranger, a 
spouse, a boyfriend or a relative, they were killed because they are 
women. Men rarely are killed because they are men." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake