On Monday, September 17, Teresa Rodriguez, a reporter with the Spanish language cable channel Univision spoke at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) for the kickoff of their Hispanic Heritage Month. Rodriguez is the author of the book The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border, which is based on several years of investigation into the murders of women and girls in the and near the city of Juarez, Mexico. She began doing research in 1998 for the show she hosts on the Spanish cable channel Aqui, Ahora.
Rodriguez said that most of the victims had come to the city to look for work and that this was right after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had come into effect. Many new factories, known as maquiladoras, were constructed after 1994 by foreign companies in Juarez and this attracted thousands of Mexicans desperate for work. The city's infrastructure could not handle all the new migrants so factory workers often constructed shantytowns outside the city, most with no running water or electricity. Women workers walked long distances to get to buses in order to get to the factories and it is believed that the perpetrators were aware of these travel patterns.
The speaker stated that the victims were raped, tortured, mutilated, and then killed. In many cases the victims' breasts were mutilated. When families would go to the authorities a common response that was provided was "she was probably leading a double life." The police seemed even uninterested in the murders. The author said that border towns are notorious for violence and Juarez was home to a large naro-trafficking cartel that may have been involved in the murders.
Corruption and lack of police contributed to a lack of investigation. As the government continued to not investigate the murders, community groups and women's groups began to organize and demonstrate. One woman that she referenced was Ester Chavez, with Casa Amiga, a community-based group that provides a safe house for women and family members.
As of 2006, 400 bodies had been recovered, according to Amnesty International. Nationally, it is important to put the issue of violence against women into perspective, since according to the speaker an average of 4 women and girls are killed daily in Mexico, 75% at the hands of their husbands. One obstacle in bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice is that Mexico has a 14-year statute of limitations for murder. Today a handful of investigators are trying to get new information on long standing cases.
As of 2007, an Argentine forensics team is bringing new evidence to the cases of murdered women in Juarez and teams from Chile and Colombia are also doing investigations with soon to be released findings. Some of the preliminary findings are that investigators found that some of the bodies were boiled by the authorities, which made it difficult to full determine how the women were killed; parts of some bodies were tossed into mass graves, and there were other instances of structural corruption.
This issue has received significant attention around the world and has recently been the reason why numerous US Representatives have traveled to Mexico to press for changes in the law, particularly a change in the statute of limitations. President Calderon has not responded to their inquiries. In terms of what actions people could take, the speaker told the audience that people could write to the President of Mexico to investigate these crimes. Some who have tried to investigate and push for justice have been fired from jobs in Mexico and others forced to leave for fear of safety.
During the question and answer time many of the questions were directed at the speaker's personal decision to pursue the investigations. The only question that dealt with the murders that wasn't addressed in her talk was "how have the factory owners in Juarez responded to these murders?" She said that they have responded by saying that it is not their responsibility to insure safety of employees outside of facility. Some factories have hired private bus drivers to bring the workers from their neighborhoods straight to the factories, but most companies would not even talk with the author when she requested interviews.
There are several activist groups in Mexico and the US who have been organizing around the murders of these women and girls. For some of the best up to date information you can go to Women of Juarez or Libertad Latina.
