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The phenomenon of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, called in Spanish feminicidio ("femicide") involves the violent deaths of hundreds of women and girls since 1993 in the northern Mexican region of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas. The amount of female murders in Ciudad Juarez since 1993 is estimated to be more than 370. The murders of females in Ciudad Juárez since 1993 have received international attention, primarily due to perceived government inaction in preventing violence against females and bringing perpetrators to justice. Crime and violence are prevalent in Ciudad Juarez and both males and females die violently in the region; however the high rates and nature of the murders of women and girls in Juarez expresses gendered oppression, and is a manifestation of inequality of gender relations, patriarchal hegemony, social class, and impunity.

The Nature of Female Homicides

Evidence suggests that a specific group of females are being targeted in Ciudad Juarez. Similarities exist across the characteristics of female victims and in the violent nature of the crimes against them. In terms of the victims, most are young women that come from impoverished backgrounds that either work in maquiladoras, as waitresses, other sectors of the informal economy, or are students. In addition, many victims share similar appearances including dark skin, slender physique, and dark hair. In terms of the crimes, similarities across cases include the rape, torture, mutilation, and murder of the victims.

Statistics

According to Amnesty International, as of February 2005 more than 370 young women and girls have been murdered in the cities of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua. More recently, prosecutors from the state of Chihuahua reported that in 2010, 270 women were killed within the state, of these murders 247 occurred in Juarez. In 2011, Chihuahua's Attorney General, Carlos Manuel Salas, announced during a briefing in August 2011 that 222 women had been killed in Chihuahua since January of that year. Of these 222 murders, 130 of them occurred in Ciudad Juarez. In total, more than 300 women were murdered in Mexico in 2011.

There are various media reports with different numbers ranging from hundreds to thousands of female homicides in the region. For this reason Amnesty International reports, "Inadequate official data on the crimes committed in Chihuahua, particularly accurate figures on the exact number of murders and abductions of girls and women, has led to disputes around the issues that obscure the quest for justice."

Femicide

The term femicide was first publicly introduced in 1976 by Diana Russell while testifying at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels in 1976. Since this introduction, there have been various definitions for femicide that appear in the literature. In 2001, Russell introduced an edited definition which is the one of the most relevant today. According to Russell, femicide is defined as “the killing of females by males because they are females." There are distinctions that exist between homicide and femicide. Typically, in order for a homicide to be considered femicide there must include one or more of the following characteristics: a victim-perpetrator relationship, history of violence, including threats of violence, toward the victim or other women, and indications of gender-related factors, such as sexual assault.

The term femicide is widely used by activists and scholars to describe the murders of women in girls in Ciudad Juarez and the impunity that surrounds them. There are various motives for femicide which can include: hate, pleasure, ire, malice, jealousy, separation, arguments, robbery, the sensation to possess women and exterminate the one that is dominated. The victimizers can be among others: a father, a lover, a husband, a friend, an acquaintance, a stranger or a boyfriend. There are various forms of femicide including: intimate partner femicides, familial femicides, femicides by other known perpetrators, stranger femicides, and serial femicides among others.

Feminicide

Some researchers have adopted the term feminicide which is defined as,"the misogynous murder of women by men.” There are five factors that characterize feminicide which include: motives, victimizers, violent acts, structural changes in society, and tolerance by the State and other institutions. The characterization of feminicide primarily allows researchers to frame research around the analysis of the response or non-response of the State to murders of females.

A study conducted in 2008 on the Feminicide Database 1993–2007 at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte which documented incidents of feminicide that occured in Ciudad Juarez from 1993-2007. Of the various differnt kinds of murders that were analyzed, the study found two common patterns in the data which were classified as intimate feminicide and systemic sexual feminicide. Intimate feminicide refers to women who were killed by men that were close to them. According to the study, intimate feminicide accounted for 30.4% of the murders of females in Juarez from 1993-2007. Systematic sexual feminicide 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 feminicide accounted for 31.8% of the murders of females in Juarez from 1993-2007.

Police and Governmental Response

There have been rulings against Mexico for it's inadequate response to the increasing violence against women. However, despite one such ruling by the Inter-American Court in 2009, Amnesty International Reports, "The government [has] failed to take effective measures to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the abduction and killing of three women in Ciudad Juárez... or to combat the ongoing pattern of violence against women and discrimination in the city.

The murders of females in Juarez have attracted global attention since 1993 given suspected police and government inaction to prevent the murders of females and bring perpetrators to justice. There have been several international rulings against Mexico for it's inadequate response to the increasing violence against women. Police and government officials have been accused of responding with indifference to the crimes against females as well as exhibiting tolerance for such crimes, conducting inadequate and negligent investigations, ineffectively responding to the crimes, and failing to prevent and protect females from violence. As a result of international attention, police and government officials have been politically pressured to respond to the murders of females. Consequently, due to political pressure for justice, police have been accused of rushing to make arrests and solve cases while the crimes continue to occur. Further, out of hundreds of cases, only three convictions have ever been made and there is much skepticism involving the integrity of the convictions. The methodology and integrity of police investigations has been questioned due to allegations of torture and human rights violations of alleged suspects.

International Justice

According to Livingstion, "In 1998 the National Commission for Human Rights issued a report charging gross irregularities and general negligence in state investigations, including the misidentification of corpses, failure to obtain expert tests on forensic evidence, failure to conduct autopsies or obtain semen analysis... failure to file written reports, [and] incompetence in keeping records of the rising tide of women murders."

In 2004, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) conducted an inquiry into the allegations that hundreds of murders of women and girls had taken place in the area of Ciudad Juarez since 1993 at the urging of several NGO's. In order for the inquiry to take place it was required that there was reliable evidence that showed that Mexico was in violation of rights established by CEDAW. The Committee analyzed the gender-based crimes occurring in Ciudad Juarez and found the two common forms were murder and dissapearances. The Committee also analyzed the response of the government and found that the their initial response was indifference and that the government exhibited tolerance of these crimes for years. Further, the Committee concluded that the measures undertaken by the Mexican State in response to gendered violence against women leading up to the time of their inquiry were, "few and ineffective at all levels of the State". The Committee made several recommendations for Mexico to adhere to. Although these recommendations were not legally binding, they were influential in the public sphere.

According to Amnesty International,"In [2009], the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on the “cotton field” (Campo Algodonero) case that Mexico was guilty of discrimination and of failing to protect three young women murdered in 2001 in Ciudad Juárez or to ensure an effective investigation into their abduction and murder." The Court ordered Mexico to conduct a new investigation of the murders, create a national memorial for the victims, pay reparations to the families of the victims, and to improve measures which prevent and adequately investigate the murder of females.

Convictions

In 1996, an Egyptian national, Omar Shariff Latiff was convicted of 3 murders and sentenced to a 30 year prison term. After his arrest in 1995, the murders continued and authorities claimed that Shariff directed members of the "Los Rebeldes" to continue the murders while he was incarcerated. The gang members accused of carrying out murders under Shariff's orders claimed they were tortured while in police custody. According to Monarrez Fragoso, "In the year 200, it was known that the body of elizabeth Castro Garcia, whose murder was attributed to Omar Shariff Latiff, does not beolong to her." His conviction is currently under appeal.

In 2001, Victor Garcia Uribe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza were aprehended for eight murders. Gustavo Gonzalez Mesa died suspiciously while in police custody. In 2004, Victor Garcia Uribe, a bus driver, was convicted of eight murders that took place in 2001. He confessed to these murders but claimed that he was tortured into confessing by police.

Impact of NAFTA

Since the passage of NAFTA in 1993, the maquiladora industry has greatly expanded in Ciudad Juarez. The implementation of NAFTA in 1994 resulted in the expansion of the maquiladora industry and created new opportunities for employment for females outside of the home and in the factories. The availability of cheap labor was attractive for business owners to open factories in Mexico and the availability of employment attracted many, especially females, to border towns such as Ciudad Juarez. Research has shown correlations between economic and political issues and violence against women along the border. Specifically, Pantaleo states research has shown, "NAFTA, as a capitalist approach, has directly created a devaluation of women and an increase ingendered violence." Further, according to Wright, in the time period between the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 and the year 2001, "the homicide rate for men increased by 300 percent, while for women it increased by 600 percent." Such studies indicate the importance of exploring the effects of NAFTA when considering the possible cuases of the murder of women and girls in Ciudad Juarez. Consequently, it has been suggested that amendments be made to NAFTA that include human rights provisions.

Impact of the Maquila Industry

The maquiladora industry greatly expanded in the border region after the implementation of NAFTA in 2004. Maquiladoras are widely known for their cheap labor and their exploitative conditions, such as regularly violating basic human rights, that often target women. Females often migrate from villages or rural areas in other parts of Mexico in search of work in the maquilas. According to Livingston, this migration of females created, "a new phenomenon of mobile, independent and vulnerable working women," in cities like Ciudad Juarez. Females are often funneled to work in areas that require lower education, and pay lower wages. Maquiladoras construct their female workforce under the notion that female workers are temporary workers, therefore justifying lower wages and creating a high turnover rate of laborers. According to Monarrez Fragoso, "the practices of the maquiladora industry towards the workers reveal a consume and dispose cycle." This consume and dispose cycle represents how the maquila industry creates "disposable" females referencing the devaluation and expendable nature of their labor.

Many of the murder victims in Ciudad Juarez have been maquiladora employees. Despite the expansion of the maquila industry, Juarez still remained a relatively poor and undeveloped city lacking infrastructure in some parts such as electricity and paved roads. As a part of their daily commute, many female maquila workers walk through such areas to and from company buses creating vulnerability to be victimized. In addition, the increased involvement of females in the labor force may also be a contributing factor to the victimization of females because of the competition for economic resources in decades in which male unemployment has been high.

The Role of Machismo and Marianismo

Sociocultural factors in relation to traditional gender roles have impacted violence against women in Mexico. According to Pantaleo, "Under the view of patriarchy, two expressions are commonly used in Mexico to show the difference in status of males and females; these expressions are machismo and marianismo." Machismo is characterized by male power and agression; while marianismo is characterized by subordination and domestic gender roles. As part of the marianismo ideology, women are expected to fufill domestic roles as wifes and mothers and to not take part in paid labor outside of the home. Women who leave their homes to seek employment in the maquila industry directly challenge the marianismo ideal of womanhood. According to Livingston, gendered violence in Ciudad Juarez may be a negative reaction as women, "gain greater personal autonomy and independence while men lose ground."

Activism

Protest by the families of some of the victims, demanding the punishment of the killers

According to Simmons, "The murders in Juárez would not have drawn such national and international attention if it were not for the heroic and timorous efforts of the victims’ families and other women." There have been numerous local and international organizations that have helped draw attention to the issue of the murders of females in Juarez which has helped to create pressure for the Mexican government to agree to further its efforts to respond to violence against women.