Since 1993, the women of Juarez have been victims of unexplained violence and brutal deaths. According to Amnesty International, about 370 women in Juarez have been murdered in the last 15 years.In recent years, there has been a shift in the women targeted as victims. The common victims were women working in maquiladoras. Maquiladoras were created as a result of the NAFTA treaty agreement. Maquiladoras are factories that would import materials from an originating country, produce a product, and then export the product back to the US.
Due to the process of globalization and the role of women within the much of Mexican culture created the view that women are obedient and flexible with hours and shifts. This theory accounted for why women comprised the assembly line workers of these maquiladoras. The women commonly employed by these maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez were poor and generally came from other parts of Mexico.
These workers were the common victims in the approximate 370 murders in Juarez. Their bodies were often found with signs of sexual abuse and torture, abandoned in ditches and empty lots.
In the last year and a half, an additional two dozen women and girls have gone missing; however, the victims' profiles have changed. The young women and girls are no longer maquiladora employees. They are university students and women looking for better jobs. The current victims are local residents, who come from working and middle class homes. And all of the young women bear a striking resemblance to each other: slender, conventionally attractive and dark-haired.
Another key element is missing this time around. There are no bodies of the victims. These women are simply missing. The victims' families have also received mysterious phone calls from unknown numbers. With the recent rise of trafficking, some believe that the young women and even girls as young as 13, have been forced into prostitution rings, perhaps in the US.
The recent increase in drug trafficking and drug cartel violence that is overshadowing the country and usurping law enforcement efforts, combined with the corrupt police of Juarez, has led to very little action or investigation into these disappearances. The women of Juarez can no longer be ignored. For 15 years we saw practically zero investigation into the murders of the maquiladora women, to the point where law enforcement was suspected of being a key player in these murders. These disappearances can no longer be brushed aside - we are talking about women's lives!
Due to the process of globalization and the role of women within the much of Mexican culture created the view that women are obedient and flexible with hours and shifts. This theory accounted for why women comprised the assembly line workers of these maquiladoras. The women commonly employed by these maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez were poor and generally came from other parts of Mexico.
These workers were the common victims in the approximate 370 murders in Juarez. Their bodies were often found with signs of sexual abuse and torture, abandoned in ditches and empty lots.
In the last year and a half, an additional two dozen women and girls have gone missing; however, the victims' profiles have changed. The young women and girls are no longer maquiladora employees. They are university students and women looking for better jobs. The current victims are local residents, who come from working and middle class homes. And all of the young women bear a striking resemblance to each other: slender, conventionally attractive and dark-haired.
Another key element is missing this time around. There are no bodies of the victims. These women are simply missing. The victims' families have also received mysterious phone calls from unknown numbers. With the recent rise of trafficking, some believe that the young women and even girls as young as 13, have been forced into prostitution rings, perhaps in the US.
The recent increase in drug trafficking and drug cartel violence that is overshadowing the country and usurping law enforcement efforts, combined with the corrupt police of Juarez, has led to very little action or investigation into these disappearances. The women of Juarez can no longer be ignored. For 15 years we saw practically zero investigation into the murders of the maquiladora women, to the point where law enforcement was suspected of being a key player in these murders. These disappearances can no longer be brushed aside - we are talking about women's lives!
Photo courtesy of www.flickr.com
1 comment:
This is shocking. Why don't more people know about this?
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