Hundreds March from El Paso to Mexico in Protest of Femicide

By Zenaida Mendez, Racial Diversity Program Director

December 13, 2005

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On Dec. 3, 2005, NOW introduced its campaign to help stop violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. NOW held a press conference and rally in El Paso, Texas, followed by a march across the border to Mexico in protest of the unsolved murders of Juarez women.

The slaying of hundreds of young women, now estimated to be more than 400, has frustrated the grieving families for over a decade. By joining with the international community and an increasing list of feminist organizations, NOW is helping send a message to the victims' families that they are not alone in their fight for justice. Many of the women were killed going to or from work at the maquiladora factories near the border, some of which are owned by U.S. companies.

Martina Alveldaño, Consuelo Valensuela, Hortensia Enriquez, Patricia Cervantes and Francisco Torres, parents of some of the victims, led the demonstration along with NOW officers. Accompanied by over two hundred people, mostly women, these parents marched over the El Paso del Norte Bridge from Texas to Mexico.

NOW's National Board members, and activists from states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were joined by members of Justicia para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters), Mexico Solidarity Network, Amigos de Mujeres de Juarez (Friends of Women of Juarez), Casa Amiga (Friendly Home), Las Hormigas (the Ants), Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (Return Our Daughters Home)-sister organizations in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and Las Cruces, N.M.

Women and men came together that day to remind the world that women in Juarez and Chihuahua are still being murdered and are still disappearing, and to demand an investigation into the murders which will bring the perpetrators to justice.

Over a 10 year period, hundreds of women have been murdered in Juarez and Chihuahua at the U.S. border with Mexico. These women were kidnapped, raped, tortured, killed and their bodies dumped in the surrounding areas.

NOW, the families and the coalition partners are calling for a transnational independent commission to oversee the Mexico-appointed authorities who are investigating the murders. The appointed officials are changed so often from their posts that the investigations, in many instances, are regressing instead of progressing.

Activists on both sides of the border see the killings as a by-product of a mixture of an allegedly misogynist and machismo society, as well as political cronyism and habitually ineffective law enforcement. This year alone, 29 bodies have been found.

There are several assumptions as to who is committing the murders — from one individual to a group of serial murderers, snuff movie production, drug-related gang wars, a bus-driver homicide network and an organ-stealing racket. But none of these explain the lack of action on the part of the authorities in the resolution and ending these crimes.

Women's rights supporters need to continue raising awareness of the violence against women in Juarez and Chihuahua and the hundreds of murders that have gone unsolved there for over a decade. Representatives in the United States Congress must be urged to take action: The U.S. states at the border with Mexico need to help and demand an end to the kidnapping, rape and murder of women whose only crime is that they are poor and vulnerable.

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