Spring Break
Alarming rates of femicide in Latin America
Sara Gwin
Issue date: 2/19/08 Section: Forum
Two-hundred yards across the border from El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico has been given the dubious titles of "the femicide capital of the world" and "the city of dead girls" by several human rights organizations.
Since 1993, 400 women have been brutally murdered, but many activists believe this is a very conservative number and suggest that it is more likely in the range of 4,000 to 6,000.
The majority of these women work in the 300 plus American owned maquiladoras (factories).
In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed, enabling American companies to take advantage of cheap labor, no environmental or safety laws and no tariffs. Seventy percent of the factory workers are women, who are hired because they can be paid less and are less likely to complain about long hours and harsh working conditions.
What makes these victims similar is their young age, poor backgrounds and employment in the maquiladoras. They are bused in from their shantytowns without any form of security and are killed on their way to and from work, and then left for dead in the vast stretches of land.
Their deaths reflect some of the most gruesome acts of violence against women. They are held captive for days, violently tortured through rape, strangulation, mutilation, stabbing, burnings and dismemberment. Often a breast is cut or bitten off.
There are rumors of women turning up in snuff films (pornographic films in which the women are murdered in the end), trafficked for sex and whose body parts are sold.
In this patriarchal culture, women are devalued to the point of inhumane violence perpetrated by men reaffirming their power and dominance.
The government and police seem to be doing nothing to protect these women or grant justice for those already slain. Police officers have been implicated in killings, while less than 1 percent of convictions have come out of male family members and friends who are tortured into confession.
Since 1993, 400 women have been brutally murdered, but many activists believe this is a very conservative number and suggest that it is more likely in the range of 4,000 to 6,000.
The majority of these women work in the 300 plus American owned maquiladoras (factories).
In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed, enabling American companies to take advantage of cheap labor, no environmental or safety laws and no tariffs. Seventy percent of the factory workers are women, who are hired because they can be paid less and are less likely to complain about long hours and harsh working conditions.
What makes these victims similar is their young age, poor backgrounds and employment in the maquiladoras. They are bused in from their shantytowns without any form of security and are killed on their way to and from work, and then left for dead in the vast stretches of land.
Their deaths reflect some of the most gruesome acts of violence against women. They are held captive for days, violently tortured through rape, strangulation, mutilation, stabbing, burnings and dismemberment. Often a breast is cut or bitten off.
There are rumors of women turning up in snuff films (pornographic films in which the women are murdered in the end), trafficked for sex and whose body parts are sold.
In this patriarchal culture, women are devalued to the point of inhumane violence perpetrated by men reaffirming their power and dominance.
The government and police seem to be doing nothing to protect these women or grant justice for those already slain. Police officers have been implicated in killings, while less than 1 percent of convictions have come out of male family members and friends who are tortured into confession.
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