Femicides in Juarez….

Not in Texas..



If you have been keeping abreast of feminist issues, you may be aware of the 370 missing women, presumed dead; killed… in Juarez, Mexico. Whether it was between 1993 & 2005 or not, the cases were nearly dismissed by the local government; leaving most disappearances unanswered. A study was conducted in 2008 on the Femicide Database 1993–2007 at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte which documented incidents of femicide that occurred in Ciudad Juárez from 1993–2007. Of the various different kinds of murders that were analyzed, the study found two common patterns in the data which were classified as intimate femicide and systemic sexual femicide. Intimate femicide refers to women who were killed by men that were close to them. According to the study, intimate femicide accounted for 30.4% of the murders of women and girls in Juárez from 1993–2007. Systematic sexual femicide refers to systematic patterns in the killing of women and children including kidnapping, sexual violence, torture, and body abandonment in areas such as desert areas, garbage dumps, and sewage ditches among others. According to the study, systemic sexual femicide accounted for 31.8% of the murders of women in Juárez from 1993–2007. In Texas, where similar crimes of murder and rape occur to young women, sometimes unaccompanied; it is still fair to say that the law worked very differently than it did in Mexico. Mexican authorities have been known to conduct inadequate and negligent investigations, responding ineffectively to the crimes, and failing to prevent and protect women from violence. Even so far as to promote a sort of “tolerance” level for the crimes that occurred. As equally intolerable is the sheer negligence in the face of forensic evidence. Gross irregularities and general negligence in state investigations, including the misidentification of corpses, failure to obtain expert tests at forensic data, failure to conduct autopsies or obtain semen analysis... Failure….then to file written reports and incompetence in record keeping amidst the rising tide of “women” murders occurring in that area. These shortcomings hamper the judicial process and increase the likelihood that cases will remain unpunished, Amnesty International also said, in a new report released today. This disgraceful example towards the unintentional disregard of human life is another reason to keep construction of the border wall up and illegal immigrants out. Something of this accord will not occur here; whether it is 20 miles from Dallas or 300. The Many who can not comply with the “rule of law” and have little interest in seeing justice served have no place in the Great state of Texas.