Official Tribute Myspace Page to the Juarez Women profile picture

Official Tribute Myspace Page to the Juarez Women

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The phenomenon of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, called in Spanish the feminicidios ("femicides") or las muertas de Juárez ("The dead women of Juárez"), involves the violent death of hundreds of women since 1993 in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from the US city of El Paso, Texas. Most of the cases remain unsolved.The homicidesAccording to the Organization of American States's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 17 and 22 years of age. Many were students, and most were maquiladora [workers in foreign owned factories]. A number were relative newcomers to Ciudad Juarez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico. The victims were generally reported missing by their families, with their bodies found days or months later abandoned in vacant lots or outlying areas. In most of these cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture or in some cases mutilation. SourceAccording to Amnesty International, as of February 2005 more than 370 bodies had been found, and over 400 women were still missing. In November 2005, BBC News reported Mexico's human rights ombudsman Jose Luis Soberanes as saying that 28 women had been murdered so far in 2005. Despite past and current unsolved murders, in August 2006 the Mexican federal government dropped its investigation.

My Interests

Joaquin Phoenix, Amnesty International

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On May 30, 2005, President Vicente Fox told reporters that the majority of the Juárez killings had been resolved and the perpetrators placed behind bars. He went on to criticize the media for "rehashing" the same 300 or 400 murders, and said matters needed to be seen in their "proper dimension". In response, the congressional special commission for the killings said that the president needed to be better informed about the situation.A group of mothers, families, and friends of the victims, called Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. ("Our daughters to come back home, civil association") was formed to raise awareness about the situation and put pressure on the Mexican government to pay attention to these cases, some of which have gone unsolved for 12 years. Members of the group, including co-founder Norma Andrade, demand that proper investigations be carried out.Another family organization, Voces sin Eco ("voices without a sound") was founded in 1998. They painted pink crosses on black telephone poles to draw attention to the problem and align themselves with family values.An informal group, which the press named Las Mujeres de Negro ("the women in black"), originated in November of 2001 in Chihuahua City, following the discovery of eight corpses together. They attended the protest, which interrupted the celebration of the Mexican Revolution, wearing black tunics (as a sign of mourning) and pink hats. Since then, they have marched across the desert from Chihuahua City to Juárez and planted crosses (sometimes with plastic limbs attached) in prominent places.To protest the lack of progress in the cases, a huge free concert was held by famous Latin artists such as Alejandro Sanz, Alex Ubago, Manu Chao, Lila Downs and others on September 18, 2005 in Mexico City's central Zócalo square.In 2002, U.S. border journalist Diana Washington Valdez published an investigative book about the murders in Spanish titled Cosecha de Mujeres: Safari en el desierto Mexicano [publisher Oceano]. She was threatened during the investigation.In 2006, filmmaker Zulma Aguiar released a documentary about the murders called Juarez Mothers Fight Femicide. She worked with Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. and is giving all proceeds from the film to the group.In 2006, Diana Washington Valdez published The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women (paperback) and Harvest of Women: Safari in Mexico (ebook), a nonfiction book in English about the Juarez women's murders.

Music:

El Paso post-hardcore band At the Drive-In released a music video for their song "Invalid Litter Dept." that details the deaths. The video features several photos of newspaper clippings and articles about the murders.In 1999, singer Tori Amos reacted to the accounts of the murders with her song "Juarez" on the album To Venus And Back.In 2004, Mexican norteño group Los Tigres del Norte released a song called "Las Mujeres de Juárez" (The Women of Juarez) on their Pacto de Sangre album. Juarez mayor Hector Murguia denounced the song, saying that it painted a false picture about the "real face of Juarez."