El País - Vanguardia
July 21, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation
Mexico – You don’t always learn from your mistakes. A decade ago, Mexico was terrorized with the almost daily appearance of female corpses in Ciudad Juarez.
At that time, the Mexican state was not able to guarantee a woman's right to life, stated the American Court of Human Rights in 2009.
And now, 20 years after the beginning of femicide that has left more than 800 dead in the border city began, Mexico faces a new crisis and it is not Ciudad Juarez in the 90s, but the State of Mexico in 2013.
Civil associations argue that in 2011 and 2012, 563 women were killed in the State of Mexico for the sole reason of being a woman.
This last week is a clear example of the tragedy: the bodies of five young women, all with signs of brutal violence, have appeared in the Valle de Chalco, a town of about 350,000 inhabitants located precisely in the State of Mexico.
A gender violence alert mechanism that was created five years ago has now become a dumb bell. Neither these five dead nor the 563 from the last two years have convinced the National System to Prevent, Treat, Punish and Eradicate Violence to activate it.
This Friday they again refused to implement an alert, which so far remains unused even though the number of deaths in the country increased by 68% between 2007 and 2009, according to UN Women. The figure, for example, tripled in the State of Baja California.
The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.
Showing posts with label Cuidad Juarez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuidad Juarez. Show all posts
Jun 13, 2013
Mexico arrests 12 in prostitution ring in connection with women’s border slayings
Washington Post
Associated Press, Published: June 12
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican prosecutors have arrested 12 people in connection with the slayings of 11 young women whose skeletal remains were found near the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez early last year.
The suspects include alleged drug dealers, pimps and small store owners. They allegedly belonged to a gang that forced young women into prostitution and drug dealing and then killed them when they were “no longer of use,” the prosecutors’ office for the northern state of Chihuahua said in a statement late Tuesday. The 10 men and two women face charges of human trafficking and homicide. Six were already in local jails for other offenses, and six other were detained early Tuesday. Read more.
Associated Press, Published: June 12
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Mexican prosecutors have arrested 12 people in connection with the slayings of 11 young women whose skeletal remains were found near the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez early last year.
The suspects include alleged drug dealers, pimps and small store owners. They allegedly belonged to a gang that forced young women into prostitution and drug dealing and then killed them when they were “no longer of use,” the prosecutors’ office for the northern state of Chihuahua said in a statement late Tuesday. The 10 men and two women face charges of human trafficking and homicide. Six were already in local jails for other offenses, and six other were detained early Tuesday. Read more.
Nov 11, 2012
Chihuahua campaign begins to find 118 missing Juárez women
By Lorena Figueroa \ El Paso Times
November 04, 2012
JUAREZ -- Chihuahua authorities last week launched a statewide campaign to locate 118 women from Juárez who have disappeared since 1995.
The campaign offers an $8,000 reward to anyone whose information helps find the women, dead or alive, said officials with the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.
Silvia Nájera, spokeswoman for the state's Special Prosecution Office for Crimes Against Women, said the strategy attempts to get the public involved in solving some of these cases.
Since the early 1990s, hundreds of women, mostly teenage girls -- some as young as 13 -- from poor and middle-class families, have disappeared in Juárez. Many have been found dead.
Nájera said that the special prosecution office lists 118 cases involving women who disappeared from 1995 to the present. The agency was established in 1995.
"This doesn't mean that we won't be taking any leads on older cases. If we receive information, we will investigate," she said.
The campaign began Tuesday with the publication in various print media outlets in Juárez of the photographs and biographies of six women who were reported missing between 1995 and 1998. Read more.
November 04, 2012
JUAREZ -- Chihuahua authorities last week launched a statewide campaign to locate 118 women from Juárez who have disappeared since 1995.
The campaign offers an $8,000 reward to anyone whose information helps find the women, dead or alive, said officials with the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.
Silvia Nájera, spokeswoman for the state's Special Prosecution Office for Crimes Against Women, said the strategy attempts to get the public involved in solving some of these cases.
Since the early 1990s, hundreds of women, mostly teenage girls -- some as young as 13 -- from poor and middle-class families, have disappeared in Juárez. Many have been found dead.
Nájera said that the special prosecution office lists 118 cases involving women who disappeared from 1995 to the present. The agency was established in 1995.
"This doesn't mean that we won't be taking any leads on older cases. If we receive information, we will investigate," she said.
The campaign began Tuesday with the publication in various print media outlets in Juárez of the photographs and biographies of six women who were reported missing between 1995 and 1998. Read more.
Nov 4, 2012
Searching for Mexico's drug war 'disappeared'
BBC By Tom Bateman
With thousands of people missing after six years of murderous violence linked to Mexico's drugs cartels, families say they want more done to find their loved ones.
It was a warm night in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and heavily armed troops were patrolling the streets, at the height of the war on drug cartels here.
Victor Baca, 21, had just dropped his girlfriend at her home and was buying a hot dog with two friends at a fast food stand.
Suddenly, and apparently without reason, troops approached the three young men, arrested them and drove them away.
That was three years ago - and the last time Mr Baca's family ever saw him.
"We think that part of the reason the military gave him a hard time was because he wasn't identified," says his father Gerardo Baca, explaining that his son may have forgotten his ID before going out that night.
"We didn't know they were arrested until the next day, when one of his arrested friends was sent to the state police," he added.
"We have no idea of the whereabouts of my son." Read more.
With thousands of people missing after six years of murderous violence linked to Mexico's drugs cartels, families say they want more done to find their loved ones.
It was a warm night in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and heavily armed troops were patrolling the streets, at the height of the war on drug cartels here.
Victor Baca, 21, had just dropped his girlfriend at her home and was buying a hot dog with two friends at a fast food stand.
Suddenly, and apparently without reason, troops approached the three young men, arrested them and drove them away.
That was three years ago - and the last time Mr Baca's family ever saw him.
"We think that part of the reason the military gave him a hard time was because he wasn't identified," says his father Gerardo Baca, explaining that his son may have forgotten his ID before going out that night.
"We didn't know they were arrested until the next day, when one of his arrested friends was sent to the state police," he added.
"We have no idea of the whereabouts of my son." Read more.
Oct 28, 2012
More Mexicans seek asylum in U.S. as drug violence rises
A Texas lawyer is among those trying to broaden the definition of asylum, dismaying conservative critics and some Mexican officials.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
October 28, 2012
EL PASO — One of his clients, a Mexican waitress and widowed mother of three, says she played dead under a pile of bodies to survive a massacre in Ciudad Juarez led by men she recognized as federal police.
Another client says Chihuahua state police hacked off his feet after he refused to pay them bribes.
They came to El Paso seeking Carlos Spector, 58, a burly, hard-charging immigration attorney who has developed a strange specialty in this Texas border city. His clients, instead of crossing into the United States illegally and hiding out, are seeking asylum.
To the dismay of conservative critics in the U.S. who call asylum seekers "narco refugees" and some officials in Mexico who call them "traitors," Spector has been trying to broaden the definition of asylum, a status granted to those fleeing persecution in their home countries. He calls them "exiles."
Compared with those fleeing other countries, relatively few Mexicans have been granted asylum. Still, the number of applications has risen rapidly and reflects, Spector says, the collapse of order in parts of Mexico. Read more.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
October 28, 2012
EL PASO — One of his clients, a Mexican waitress and widowed mother of three, says she played dead under a pile of bodies to survive a massacre in Ciudad Juarez led by men she recognized as federal police.
Another client says Chihuahua state police hacked off his feet after he refused to pay them bribes.
They came to El Paso seeking Carlos Spector, 58, a burly, hard-charging immigration attorney who has developed a strange specialty in this Texas border city. His clients, instead of crossing into the United States illegally and hiding out, are seeking asylum.
To the dismay of conservative critics in the U.S. who call asylum seekers "narco refugees" and some officials in Mexico who call them "traitors," Spector has been trying to broaden the definition of asylum, a status granted to those fleeing persecution in their home countries. He calls them "exiles."
Compared with those fleeing other countries, relatively few Mexicans have been granted asylum. Still, the number of applications has risen rapidly and reflects, Spector says, the collapse of order in parts of Mexico. Read more.
Sep 21, 2012
Ciudad Juarez Launches Aggressive Campaign For Female Crime Victims
Fox News Latino, by Joseph Kolb
Published September 19, 2012
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – In a small room at the Fiscalía Especializada en Atención a Mujeres Víctimas por Razones de Género, Bernardo Manzano stood pensively with his hands cuffed behind his back, while two police officers stood on either side of him as he was photographed and questioned by more than a dozen reporters.
Not a drug dealer this time. The 43-year-old maquiladora worker was about to be charged with sexually assaulting his wife.
Parading suspects accused of committing crimes against women in front of the media have become increasingly common here, in the wake of a combined and aggressive campaign by Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state to curb these kind of offenses.
A 20-year legacy of crimes against women, especially the well-publicized killing of women in the late 1990s – popularly known as ‘femicides’-- has given this border city international notoriety.
The new prosecutor's office, which opened in March, deals exclusively with crimes against women but is not limited to legal matters. The modern three-story building houses a one-stop service center that includes special prosecutors and investigators, but also provides child care, medical, counseling and financial support services. In the coming months it will also provide temporary shelter for women and children facing domestic violence.
"Crimes against women are not going down, but now we have better collaboration with the municipal, state and federal police, as well as the forensic lab," said Silvia Najera, spokeswoman for the agency. Read more.
Published September 19, 2012
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – In a small room at the Fiscalía Especializada en Atención a Mujeres Víctimas por Razones de Género, Bernardo Manzano stood pensively with his hands cuffed behind his back, while two police officers stood on either side of him as he was photographed and questioned by more than a dozen reporters.
Not a drug dealer this time. The 43-year-old maquiladora worker was about to be charged with sexually assaulting his wife.
Parading suspects accused of committing crimes against women in front of the media have become increasingly common here, in the wake of a combined and aggressive campaign by Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state to curb these kind of offenses.
A 20-year legacy of crimes against women, especially the well-publicized killing of women in the late 1990s – popularly known as ‘femicides’-- has given this border city international notoriety.
The new prosecutor's office, which opened in March, deals exclusively with crimes against women but is not limited to legal matters. The modern three-story building houses a one-stop service center that includes special prosecutors and investigators, but also provides child care, medical, counseling and financial support services. In the coming months it will also provide temporary shelter for women and children facing domestic violence.
"Crimes against women are not going down, but now we have better collaboration with the municipal, state and federal police, as well as the forensic lab," said Silvia Najera, spokeswoman for the agency. Read more.
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