EL PASO, Texas -- This is one of those stories, like drought,
that happens quietly over a long period, so no one quite notices how
horrible it is ... except those directly affected. Those who pay attention
to the Texas-Mexican border have known for years now about the murder of
women in Juarez.
Mexican and American feminists have tried to draw attention to
what at first seemed just an extraordinary case, or series of cases. There
was one arrest that looked good (and a bunch of cases of guys who confessed
after the cops beat the crap out of them -- this has now become a standard
claim), and for a time it seemed the police might have the right guy in
custody. But the killing continued.
The newspaper Norte of Juarez bannered the story again last week
under the headline, "State Justice Fails." Above it on the front page were
the numbers: "More than 250 women murdered, 19 arrests, no one sentenced."
The bodies of 274 women who fit the pattern have been found since 1993.
The state police claim only 76 are the victims of serial killers
and that they have solved one-third of those cases. It's hard to find anyone
who believes them. According to Diana Washington Valdez of the El Paso
Times, who has covered the story for two years, the actual number of murders
is probably 325, counting 40 as-yet unidentified bodies, with an additional
40 to 60 young women missing.
Those familiar with the cases have come to a stunning
conclusion: Though no one actually knows, they now suspect there is no
serial killer or even more than one serial killer, nor is this a matter of a
copycat killer or two. What has happened is that an entire class of
predatory men has learned it can get away with this.
Torture is a frequent accompaniment to the pattern of rape and
murder. Since the killings began, the repetition in the description of the
victims has become mind-numbingly familiar: young, slim, long hair, worked
in a maquildora.
The maquiladoras are
American-owned factories, plunked on the other side of the border so they
don't have to pay minimum wage or meet safety or environmental laws. The
workforce in the 340 American-owned factories located here is about 70
percent young and female, tens of thousands of women who are usually
reported to earn about $55 a week. (I suspect that's high because it was $24
in 1997.) The victims are normally picked off on their way to or from work,
as they wait for buses in the pre-dawn hours or as they walk home alone
after a late shift.
The brave Mexican women who have organized, and protested, and
marched, and demonstrated about the murders in Juarez need help. The women
in El Paso who have joined them can make contacts and translate. You can
reach the Coalition Against Violence Toward Women and Families on the border
by e-mail at
niunamasep@yahoo.com.
Is this our fight? More so, I believe, than was even the case
with the women of Afghanistan under the Taliban. Until our country's
policies changed so radically after Sept. 11, the ability of American women
to change anything in Afghanistan was painfully limited. In this case, we
have clout.
Look at the names on the maquiladoras --
Ford, Alcoa, General Motors, DuPont, Contico. According to an excellent
update by Evelyn Nieves in the current issue of Mother Jones: "Though the
companies have vowed to improve security in the city's industrial areas,
there has been no coordinated campaign to protect the young women workers --
even though the eight bodies found in November were discovered in a field
directly across the road for the office of the foreign companies' trade
association. Nor have the plants changed policies that may be endangering
their employees. Workers are still turned away at many factories if they are
as little as three minutes late, leaving them to return home alone and
vulnerable -- as was the case of several of the women were late found dead.
Workers still begin and end their late-night shifts with no police or
security patrols in sight."
Bet you even money if there were even a whiff of a terrorist
plan to sabotage those factories, there'd be security patrols all over.
The incompetence of the Juarez and Chihuahua police has been
thoroughly demonstrated -- Juarez is a notorious center for narcotraficantes. Just last November, the Mexican attorney
general's office, PGR, announced it would not take over the investigation
despite appeals from women's groups.
The groups are now pushing Congress for a bi-national effort on
the case. We know how to do this: call, write and "resolute up a storm," as
they say in the Texas Legislature. It works.
To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web
page at
www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2002 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
